The Eyes of a Victor
by AprilDawson
Summary: What if all the victors we read in the Hunger Games series was never reaped for the Quarter Quell? What if the other victors of those districts were chosen instead? This is a journey of one of the victors, Emily Horwitz of District 8, about how she won the 68th Games and what her fate would have been if Cecelia was never reaped for the 75th Games.
1. Chapter 1: District 8 Reaping

Reaping Day . . . the most dreaded day of the year. The time of year when children from ages twelve to eighteen are gathered in front of the Justice Hall, two large glass bowls that carried the names of each child of both genders would be chosen as a tribute, or in their case as a sacrifice, for the Hunger Games.

Emily walked with her classmates and co-workers that were of age to participate in the Hunger Games and waited with the other sixteen-year-old girls. She was nervous of course . . . but her name is in there five times, one for each year that had passed, so she wasn't completely terrified of being chosen. Many of the kids around her had more slips of paper with their name written on it more than she did.

A man with burgundy hair, silver nails, and dark skin came up on the stage and tapped on the microphone at the podium. "Hellooooo everybody!" he waved. "You know what time it is, so let's cut to the chase! Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!" A couple people clapped, but then the crowd fell silent. He waited a few seconds, but it was obvious nobody else was going to start clapping. Thorburn crossed over to the glass ball full of girls' names. "Ladies first," he said, pulling out a slip with much bravado.

"Emily Horwitz!" the District 8 escort called out.

Emily's heart stopped beating for what felt like forever . . . _Me? But . . . what?_

Everyone was looking to her and she saw the look on their faces. There was no hope for her. They knew she wouldn't survive the Games. It would be like throwing a newborn lamb into a pack of wolves. No one in her district would bet on her being in the top ten even.

She made her way up to the Justice Hall, cameras on her for the world to see. Her legs were shaking when she stood beside the escort as he called the boy's name, but she didn't hear. Her ears were ringing and her brain buzzing. She shook the other tribute's hand and went inside to the Justice Hall with him and her mentor, to say their final goodbyes to the people that loved them.

Emily was waiting in one of the rooms, sitting on a chair and hugging her knees to her chest. She was trembling. And who wouldn't be? They'd be mad to not be afraid.

The door opened and Harmony came inside and embraced Emily. "You'll be okay . . . you'll be okay," she whispered to Emily.

She shook her head at her. "Who are we kidding? I'm least likely to survive the bloodbath when the Games start."

"No, no Em. You're fast. You're strong—"

"But I don't know how to handle a weapon—"

"Then learn!" Harmony exclaimed. "They're going to train you. Find a weapon that'll help you. And when the Games start, find one and use it!" she shook Emily.

Emily could only nod and hugged Harmony again. "Thank you for everything," Emily said quietly.

Harmony nodded and pat her head. "You'll be okay," she said before she was forced to leave.

The last person to come see her was her friend Cece who, like Harmony, embraced her immediately in a tight hold. "It shouldn't have been you . . . It should have been someone else. Anyone else but you," Cece mumbled.

Cece let go of her and clipped something around her neck. A necklace with gold colored charm in shape of a leaf. "Cece this is—"

"Take it. It'll bring you good luck," she stopped her and took Emily's hand. "If I were much younger I would have volunteered for you."

Emily broke into tears and hugged her friend who cried with her. The Peacekeeper takes Cece away and Emily was alone once more. She cried silently during her time alone until they came for her and pulled her to the car that drove them to the Tribute Train. Emily tried to calm herself before they got there, but Lord knows that she looked like a train wreck and the cameras were going to get everything.

It was loud with excitement outside in front of the train. Camera people were trying to get the tributes attention, but they both ignored them and tried to get on the train as fast as possible. When she and the other tribute, as well as her escort and mentor went inside the train started moving.

Emily couldn't believe she was actually there . . . the odds were not in her favor.


	2. Chapter 2: Tribute Train

Emily wasn't in the mood to eat anything or talk to anyone. She went into her room in one of the cars and stayed there the entire time. Her escort, who's name was Thorburn Roxen, tried to get her out a couple times but she never answered even once.

She had been looking out her room window watching the background change and move past her quickly. She fought her hunger, she really didn't want to go out and talk to anyone, if she did they were bound to ask her if she was okay before she would emotionally break down. She didn't want her fellow district tribute or her mentor to see her cry.

Then again the tribute probably knew as well as everyone back home that she wouldn't win the games. With her personality she wouldn't even kill a fly. And to be thrown in an arena . . . where people expected her and the other twenty-three tributes to kill one another . . . she had no chance.

Emily would have a very slim chance of winning. Very slim.

She curled in a ball and laid on her side, crying in her knees until she fell asleep.

Emily did the same thing as the Reaping Day, but this time she actually came out of her room to eat something.

"Are you feeling any better Emily?" Thorburn asked her.

She ignored him and ate her sausage.

"Rude . . ." he scoffed.

Her mentor, Phox Lapworth was giving them advice on how to find shelter and how to find water in all the different kinds of arenas that could be thrown at them. Emily was listening during those times, but she let her fellow tribute ask the questions as she ate. After the little meeting Emily went back to her room to go daydream and keep to herself. They still had another day to get to the Capitol with the many stops it takes to pick up the rest of the tributes from the other districts.

She only came out when it was time to eat and repeat the same process as breakfast. Eat. Don't talk. Listen to advice. Go back to room. Daydream. It was only after dinner that she actually went to asleep.

She had a nightmare of the Games and how she would die.


	3. Chapter 3: Entering the Capitol!

Emily woke up to Thorburn knocking on her door. "Time to wake up Emily! Big big day! Up up up!" he chimed before her walked away from her door. She groaned and lifted her head from the softest pillow she had ever laid her head upon. She didn't want to get out of bed and out of her room.

But she had no choice . . .

Emily brushed her hair with her fingers and changed into whatever was in the drawers offered from the Capitol before she went out. She looked around her and took notice of everything. How fancy and clean everything looked, expensive furniture, and how the elegant colors complimented each other. The dining table was covered with rich looking food and shiny china and utensils, her mentor and fellow tribute, who's name she couldn't remember, was already at the table eating.

"Well look who's awake," Phox said with his mouth full. "Feel like talking today?"

"Yes, I'm going to talk today," she said quietly and started putting food on her dish.

"Good. I know this is a really frightening time. But you'll have to suck it up from here onward," Phox said while he was spreading jam on his toast.

Emily nodded and sighed. "Okay," she mumbled and bit into her muffin.

"Since I know so little about you, I'm not really sure what kind of personality you'll be showing to get some sponsors. You've been watching the Games, so you know how getting sponsors work right?"

"Yes, I do. I know that there's the Tribute Parade which will be the sponsors first time seeing us, there's the interview, and points given for training," she listed.

"Exactly. We just might have to change some things, be ready to accept that," he pointed out. It then went dark, they must have gone into the tunnel. Emily turned around to look out the window and saw huge buildings of the Capitol. The Capitol she'd seen on the screen did no justice to seeing it in real life

When they reached the station there were so many people in bright colors. Their hair dyed and their nails painted in bright colors, some matching their hair dye and others colored to make a sharp contrast. Their outfits were so outrageous they seemed unreal. The many bouncing citizens of the Capitol were excited for the tributes upon the train. It was extremely overwhelming.

All those people were actually excited . . . she never understood why children killing each other was entertaining to these Capitol people. And what was there to understand? They're sick twisted people who couldn't understand the hardship that the Districts lived.

Okay . . . once she walked out of that train . . . she'd have to start kissing up to the Capitol.


	4. Chapter 4: Tribute Parade!

Just like the other tributes, they cleaned her up to look prettier. The tweezed some slightly blondish looking strands of hair from her head so she could look even more radiant with her flaming red hair. They cleaned her face so she would appear to have completely flawless cream-colored skin, cut her nails short, and waxed her blond leg hairs off.

Their job was to make the tributes clean cut and pretty.

She met her stylist, Winnow, who was just as charming as a button. Her hair was powder blue and looked like she had just finished school. "My word! Such lovely hair," she said and ran her fingers in Emily's hair.

"Thanks . . . I grow it myself," she said causually.

Winnow giggled and took a look at Emily's face. "They did a lovely job fixing you up. Now! I have a special surprise for you. Oh!" she chirped. "You're going to look fantastic. Good thing I designed your costume in the color I planned out. The other colors I had thought of wouldn't have worked with your hair color," she commented.

Good thing she comes from the textiles district, she wouldn't look as overly ridiculous as the other tributes would.

Emily pulled the skirt of her dress down a little more in the back, afraid that it was flashing her butt to people just behind her. But even pulling it down exposed a little more cleavage. Couldn't Winnow have designed the dress to be longer? Maybe past her knees?

And her shoes . . . how Capitol women could walk in those heels appalled her. She was wearing all purple with bow earrings and a large purple ring around her middle finger. Her nails were even done in purple. Her hair was pinned up and tucked under her a small top hat that was pinned to the side of her head, a black veil that covered her face, giving her that dark and yet elegant look, with a black and purple feather on it.

She couldn't breathe. Maybe because she was so nervous. After all she was on a carriage waiting to go out in front of everyone that lived in the Capitol as well as have thousands of eyes and cameras all on her. The crowd was cheering when they saw District 1 roll in on their chariot, making Emily feeling more nervous and much more nauseous.

District chariot after district chariot, her heart raced faster. Then it was their turn.

"Calm down . . . you'll be okay. Just smile and wave. Don't show any fear or you won't any sponsors," her fellow tribute whispered quietly to her just before the horses started moving.

Oh god!

Through the tunnel and the world opened up. Rainbow of colors rippled in the audience showing excited faces as all eyes were on her and her fellow tribute. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and pulled out a brave face and a smile. Her eyes gleamed as she waved to the audience. They were just eating her up.

Not only her but the other tribute. They looked so elegant. So classy. They came from the District that makes the Capitol's clothing. So of course they looked like them.

Emily kept her smile plastered on her face, to show she was having a wonderful time, even if she couldn't breath from being so scared. Their chariot finally stopped and the rest of the District's chariots came in after them, stopping at District 12.

There stood President Snow, giving an announcement when everyone in the audience calmed down. But Emily's ears were practically buzzing and her brain was completely preoccupied. She wasn't paying attention to him at all. But even if she did it would have been the same announcement and welcoming them that he had said for years at every Tribute Parade.

After he was done the horses had started moving them into another room where everyone got off to meet their mentors, escorts, and stylists.

"You were just beautiful," Thorburn had said.

"Really? I didn't look like an idiot?" Emily stuttered.

Winnow nodded and hugged her. "You were wonderful Emily. They simply loved the both of you," she complimented with a smile.

Emily nodded, taking in fast breaths to calm her nerves. They went inside where they held the after party for the tributes. It was the only solution that Thorburn could think of that would help calm Emily.

She needed food in her system. STAT!


	5. Chapter 5: Reunion!

Emily took out all the hairpins that pinned her hat to her head as well as all the pins that were in her hair. She hated it when people do something weird to her hair. It was a king of pet peeve of hers. She usually kept her hair down in its natural gentle curls or had it up in a ponytail. That was it! Anything else with her hair made her feel uncomfortable.

Emily got off her chair and went for the table that had food laid out for everybody. She fluffed her hair before she took a plate and swore she put a quarter of the table on her plate. She didn't realize how hungry she was.

Emily had just put her dish by her seat when someone called, "Emily!?"

She turned automatically and saw her old friend, Liam. His family was transferred to District 9 about two years ago and haven't seen each other since. "Liam!" she said happily, but that happiness went away just as quickly. No . . . he was reaped too.

Liam embraced her and kept her in a strong hold. He was always strong and always by her side until he was forced away. "I can't believe you're actually here."

"I know . . . I can't believe it either. And you . . . You're here too," she started and stopped to look up at him. "You've gotten taller."

"It's either that or you've gotten shorter," he chuckled and pat her head. "Although you do look a little taller than the last time I saw you."

Emily rolled her eyes and took one high heel off and put all her weight on her shoeless foot. "Not really. Shoes . . . you know?"

Liam laughed and shook his head at her. "Charming as always," he mumbled and pulled her chair for her. Emily took the offer and made herself comfortable while Liam took a chair beside her. "Anything different back at 8?"

Emily shook her head and nibbled on a piece of chicken slathered in raspberry sauce. "Nothing new," she said in between chews. "I did get a tattoo though," she commented.

"I was going to ask. When I saw you I saw something peeking from your dress. Care to show a little more?" he shrugged.

"Only a little," she answered and turned her back to him.

Liam tugged the back of her dress down a little and saw more feathers inked on her back. "Angel wings?"

She nodded and turned to him again. "You know my issue with my family," she poked and took another bite of chicken.

"Yeah . . . I do . . ." he mumbled. She came from a terrible home. Her mother was hardly there, or to say the least mentally she wasn't there. She was just a shell of her mother. Emily always remembered her to be that way, she assumed her mother witnessed a Peacekeeper kill someone in front of her during work and has been a completely different person ever since. Her father was a drinker and abused Emily. And because her mother hardly reacted or communicated, her mother did nothing to help Emily.

Eventually it became too much and Emily lived a homeless lifestyle when she was thirteen for a couple months. Her co-workers from the factory, Cece and Harmony, decided to "adopt" her in their shared family home when both their sisters who were Emily's classmates told them about what Emily had been doing. Honestly it was really Liam that told them she was homeless since he was the only person that she was really close to. Emily told him everything and that led to her living with Cece, Harmony, and their sisters.

"I have to thank you for telling them," Emily said.

"You already have. Like a thousand times," he chuckled.

"Yes . . . but I was a lot happier living with them than with my parents," she mumbled.

"They're the ones that suggested the tattoo?" he asked and pointed to her back.

Emily nodded. "Yep. Symbolism for being able to escape my parents and for my . . . harmless personality," she shrugged.

Harmless . . . she was and that won't help her win the Games at all.

Liam lightly smiled at Emily and took her hand. He intertwined his fingers with hers and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "I'm happy to see you again Em . . ."

_Just not like this . . . under another situation_, Emily thought to herself.


	6. Chapter 6: Training Day One!

How the hell was everyone naturally good using those weapons!?

Emily was observing the other tributes from the traps section. The ones that she found to be a threat were the Careers, obviously. They were strong, fast, poised, and far out brutal. The men especially. Emily had seen them cut off the arms and legs of the practice dummies, throw knives at light speed and hit right in the middle of the heart, and spear dummies at their vital areas.

She shook her head and went back to tying rope and weaving them around. "You're almost halfway done already?" Liam exclaimed.

"I make dresses at the factory and have been for years. So of course I'm good with my hands," she mumbled.

"I can tell . . . you have an intense look of focus in your eyes."

Emily let out of light chuckle. "Why? Is the intense look funny on me?"

"It really doesn't suit you actually," he smiled. "You're too soft and nice to make a believable mean face."

She rolled her eyes at him and nudged him with her foot. "You should be training too you know."

"You need more help than I do—"

"All done," Emily chirped and smirked at him. "You were saying?"

"Sure. Making a net will help you catch your food, but you still have to learn how to kill one," Liam shrugged.

Her shoulders fell and gave him a grim look. "I know . . ."

"I'll show you how to skin them and how thoroughly you'll have to wash them when we meet up in the arena. I already know how to start a fire so I'll even teach you how to start one too. For now we're going to train with weapons and combat." Liam got back on his feet and offered her a hand before Emily took his hand and pulled herself to her feet. "I should at least show you how to shoot something."

"You know how to work a bow?" Emily asked in amazement.

He gave a light laugh and pulled her along to the archery section. "Yeah. After being transferred to 9 I got bored after work and learned how to shoot after making my own bow. These ones I'll have to get used to using before properly teaching you though," he said before he let go of her hand and took a bow and an arrow.

Emily crossed her arms over her chest and watched his stance. When he pulled the string of his bow and focused on his target, it was there that Emily saw incredible strength in him . . . he was going to win . . . he was going to win the Games. There was no doubt about it.

He released the arrow but it hit a blank next to the dummy. It was to be expected. Liam did mention he had to get used to the bow. He took a couple more practice shots until he finally hit the heart of the dummy.

"There we go. Now you try," he started and handed her the bow.

"Are you even sure this'll be my kind of weapon?"

"We'll we won't know unless you try everything around here." She nodded and gripped the bow in her hand. Liam handed her one of the arrows and watched her how to handle it. "Okay first things first, you're suppose to stand like this," she started and twisted her body so she had her side to the target. "And your elbow should be all the way up here," he said and raised her elbow up. "Pull the string a little more so your hand touching your jawline," Emily obeyed, "And have your eyes follow the shaft to the very point so you follow where the point is aimed at," he instructed.

Emily blinked and did as he instructed. She let out of slow breath and released the arrow. And just like Liam she hit the very side of the dummy.

"Really not bad for your first try."

"Seriously? Doesn't seem that good to me," she mumbled and made a face as if she were disgusted.

Liam chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. But it was your first time, it could be a whole lot worse."

Emily groaned and tried again.


	7. Chapter 7: The Roof!

After a long and exhausting second day of training, Emily went back up with her District 8 tribute, who she finally learned was named Beaufort, and made an alliance with him as well as with Liam and his district tribute, Althea. It was Liam's idea too, to make an alliance so we would all have a higher chance of going against other tributes. Better than one-on-one.

To Emily, it was only going to be harder to have to kill them if the four of them were the last ones left.

Emily peeled her sweaty training uniform off and took a quick shower. She fit into something light blue that matched Winnow's hair with comfortable black pants and left her hair down before she went and joined everyone in the dining room.

"So Emily have you found a weapon that you're any good at?" Phox asked.

She shrugged and ate her lamb. She was still working on archery from when Liam taught her yesterday and even tried for another weapon that could be easier for her to use. The knives felt good in her hands, but her mark was awful when it came to throwing them.

"You'll have to find something really soon Em. You have one more day of training then a private session the day after to find out," Phox reminded.

She nodded and ran her hand through her hair. She already knew . . . she only wished they were given more time to train so she actually **could** find her weapon of choice. Emily was actually feeling sick thinking how little time she had left before she was thrown in the arena with the other tributes that had already found their weapon of choice.

Emily pushed her plate back and excused herself. She didn't feel like eating anymore.

Next thing she knew she found herself on the roof where she could see the Capitol. She approached the edge . . . she considered just taking a step and end the whole thing then and there.

"You know there's a force field around this tower to stop tributes from committing suicide right?" a voice called out to her.

Emily sighed. Right, there was no way the Capitol would allow the roof to be open to everyone and not put something up to make sure the tributes did anything stupid. The Games need all their tributes alive for the Games. A suicide attempt was futile.

She looked over to a boy no older than fifteen with red hair and an axe tattoo on his neck. Emily immediately recognized him to be District 7's victor from last year's Hunger Games, Abraham.

"Figures . . ." she mumbled and leaned back on the wall before she sunk to the ground. She ran both her hands in her hair, almost to the point of ripping it from her roots. Emily had to put her mind on something other than the fact that she had no talents whatsoever that could help her win the Games.

"Bad day?"

She gave a cold chuckle. "Guess you can say that . . .," she mumbled. "It's just . . . I have no chance of coming out alive . . ." she said. Her head reeled to what Phox said, that she should find her best weapon soon before the Games. She already knew that and telling her was only stressing her out even more. "A majority of the tributes have found their weapon of choice . . ." she started but stopped herself midway.

"And . . . you haven't yet?" Abraham started and leaned on the wall beside her, staring down at her. Emily shook. "Earlier today you were trying the Gauntlet and I thought you did fairly well."

Yeah . . . but that was mostly about jumping from platform to platform in the fastest time possible. She was a fast runner and she could dodge and jump over things, but—"I have to do more than just run when they throw me in the arena . . ."

"You're right about that," he nodded and pushed off the wall. "Get up, I'm going to teach you some stuff."

"Wha—won't you get in trouble? You're not a mentor from my district . . .

"Just get up. And this place isn't bugged," he rolled his eyes. Emily hesitated and got onto her feet facing Abraham. "Do you at least know any hand-to-hand combat?" She shook her head and there she saw the same look on his face that everyone back at home gave her when her name was called in the Reaping.

"Well . . . only in defense," she answered.

"Okay then, throw a punch me then. Hardest punch you can throw at me," he said and raised his hands to her, palm facing her.

She stared at him sheepishly and sighed, balled her hands in fist, came at him at punched him as hard as he could.

"Ow—shit—" he cursed and shook his hand and lightly rubbed his palm she hit.

"Oh god! I'm sorry! Was that too hard!?" she reacted.

"No no no! You can't react that way!" he said and shook his hand a little bit. "You have a mighty punch that could knock out some teeth," he commented. "Your team must have rubbed the living hell out of your hands to make them soft I assume." It was true, when she was being cleaned up her team rubbed the rough skin away to give her delicate looking hands. The downside to working in a factory is that your hands get hard. "You have to have a good kick if your punch is that hard."

She shrugged.

"Okay, prepare yourself . . ."

"For what—"

But before she could finish, Abraham went at her and Emily reacted as best as she thought was necessary. She took a side step, caught hold of his arm, twisted it behind his back, and kicked him down to his knees. When she realized what she did she let go of him and backed away.

"Well now," Abraham started and sat down staring up at her. "Looks like you do have a chance of winning. All you would need is a knife and finish off your opponent."

She had a chance? Just for doing that? "I just got lucky . . ."

He shrugged and got back on his feet. "Maybe. Try again then?"

******

They practiced for a couple more hours until Emily became good enough she cornered him. "All you need now is a knife," he commented.

"Not exactly the best at knife throwing if my opponent appears to look stronger than me though . . ." she mumbled.

"That's because when you tried today you released the knife too late. When you tried to throw it hit the legs or the stomach when you were trying to hit the head or heart. When you go back down there tomorrow, go try the throwing knives again and take my instructions into account. Keep your wrist stiff and release the knife at eye level next time," he instructed.

"You really think a knife is my kind of weapon?" she questioned.

He shrugged and got back on his feet. "We'll see," he answered and made his way to the elevator. "I'll be back here again tomorrow night," he said.

She couldn't help but lightly smile. He was that sure she would come back?

******

Emily went back to the training center, and like what Abraham told her on the roof, she went to the throwing knives and held a knife softly. It felt right . . . the touch of the handle in her hand felt familiar . . . like it was the thing missing from her hand for so long.

Emily looked to the dummies in front of her and gripped the knife in a tight hold. Release at eye level . . .

She raised her arm and threw the knife, which hit the dummy's head and sunk deep into the forehead. Emily stared at her damage in amazement. She actually hit the spot she wanted on the first try.

She had a chance . . . she really did have a chance . . .


	8. Chapter 8: Evaluation!

Surprisingly Emily got knife throwing off the bat after Abraham gave her instructions that first night they met. She even surprised Liam. She kept practicing in that section until she felt she had gotten the hang of it before moving on to work on her hand-to-hand combat. Which she also surprised Liam. She wanted to tell Liam that Abraham had actually taught her all those things. But the room was bugged and there were ears everywhere.

If people knew that a mentor was giving instructions to a tribute that wasn't from their district it would risk his job. Or whatever the Capitol will think would be perfect punishment.

After Emily took a shower and ate, she snuck up to the roof again and saw Abraham already there. "Hey Red," he greeted casually.

She stopped and eyed him. "That's what you're going to call me? "Red"?"

"You responded to it didn't you?" he smirked. She couldn't find any words to argue, but she knew she was defeated. "So "Red" it is." Emily rolled his eyes at him. "So there's something else you want to learn?"

"Yeah . . ." she started and cracked her knuckles. "Have any tips to wrestle people?"

He raised his brows in interest. "You want to learn how to wrestle?"

"Well . . . It'll be difficult to stab my opponents if I can't hold them down or do what you taught me," she explained sheepishly.

"That's true." He stopped and examined her. "You're very short, but pack some muscles, and you're fast as well. I'll have to warn you that it won't work on the Careers," he explained.

She nodded. She had to try something. And she had already shown her best in the training center in front of the Careers. But they still looked at her like she was a meal. She would have to somehow surprise them by getting high points from her private session.

"If you ask me, showing off you have muscles may earn you more points. It's not often the Gamemakers see strong female tributes," he shrugged.

That was true. Although Panem really wouldn't know. When the tributes had their private sessions and everyone saw how many points they earned, what they did in those sessions was kept a secret. And whenever they saw the tributes fight, the girls were almost always much weaker than the boys.

Would her strength really earn her more points? If only the private sessions allowed the tributes to show off more than one skill.

"You still want to try to learn how to pin your opponent?"

She lightly smiled. "Sure, it just might come in handy."

*****

Emily was waiting in one of the rooms with the other tributes after District 7 for their private sessions. Currently her tribute, Beaufort was being evaluated and Emily was next. She was tapping her foot nervously, holding Liam's hand tightly, and her heart was pounding loudly that she swore the Gamemakers in the other room could hear.

_**Emily Horwitz . . .**_ the intercom announced which startled Emily.

"You'll do great," Liam whispered to her and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

Emily gulped the lump away and got on her feet. Her heart beating faster and harder with every step she took. The door opened before her and closed just behind her. She looked around saw a couple weapons and some obstacles.

It was just her and the Gamemakers in their own room with food and drinks.

She looked to the giant weight ball to the side but couldn't find the confidence to go to it and throw it around. She never tried it . . . what if it was too heavy? She felt a pang in her chest and went for the knives instead. Sorry Abraham . . . but she knew she had some newfound skills with knives.

"Emily Horwitz . . . District 8," she called for the Gamemakers attention. She took a couple knives and held four knives in each of her hands. Emily swallowed her lump away and exhaled a slow deep breath before she threw knife after knife after knife at all the dummies, hitting them all in between the eyes and threw them hard enough that the knives dug deep into the heads and stopped at the groove.

Just to show she had not only skill in throwing knives, but strength too.

She looked back to the Gamemakers and saw only half of them were even paying attention. Some of them stared at her as if she was incredibly lethal. But overall . . . if the other half of the Gamemakers weren't watching . . . her score could be low . . . she would get a bad score because of the ignoring half!

"Thank you . . . Ms. Horwitz. You're excused . . ." one of them said and shooed her away.

She nodded and made her way to the elevator.

*****

Emily was pacing around the room rubbing her arms for warm. She was getting chills for waiting for the results of her session with the Gamemakers, the suspense was killing her.

"Would you stop already? You're going to burn a hole into the carpet and you're making me dizzy," Beaufort said.

"How are you not nervous?" she questioned.

He shrugged and leaned back onto the couch. Phox, Thorburn, and Winnow came into the living space where they gathered in front of the television. The evaluation was being announced.

They Careers obviously got nines and tens, nothing new about that. Others were fairly high while others were surprisingly low, no lower than four. The evaluation of each tribute was going by so slow! Emily swore that Caesar was announcing the points slow to make her nauseous with suspense and nervousness.

Finally . . .

"Beaufort of District 8 . . . with a score of . . . seven." Emily hugged her knees as she watched the screen while everyone gave Beaufort a pat on the shoulder and a congratulations. "Emily Horwitz . . ." Emily's hear felt like it skipped a beat when he said her name. "Of District 8 . . . with a score of . . ." she squeezed her knees in her hands and took in slow breaths, "ten."

"What!?" she exclaimed in shock. A ten? Did she hear that right? Was she seeing the number correctly on the screen? A ten!?

"Oh my goodness! Emily! That's wonderful!" Winnow squealed happily and hugged her tightly. Phox looked pleased that Emily had done so well and seemed to have surprised him as well. He was just about to give up on her too.

A ten . . . she somehow got a ten . . .


	9. Chapter 9: The Interview!

"Twirl for me!" Winnow chirped excitedly.

"This is seventh time you told me to twirl for you," Emily said and twirled yet again. "I swear I'm going to fall over and rip this dress if you tell me to do it one more time," she said annoyingly.

"Yeah, but . . . you just look so good!" she squealed.

Emily wasn't denying it . . . she did look good. Beautiful in fact. And it took a lot to make her believe she was beautiful. Her hair was up in a braided bun, some loose hairs have escaped which gave her an elegant and yet sexy messy look. Her dress was a strapless in a light shade of yellow, an almost soft color of spring. Her makeup crew gave her a natural look, not a lot, but not too little. She already had the soft innocent girl look and putting any more makeup would just ruin it, Winnow said. With her red hair she almost represented the sun.

Emily sighs nervously as she looked at herself in the mirror. "What's wrong sweetheart?"

"It's just . . . How the heck do I get people to like me? Being shy and quiet isn't really something that the crowd would like?" she said and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well it turns out they actually like that kind of attitude," she smiled. Emily started at her in confusion. "The reason you got such a good score is because they believe you're two-faced."

"Two-faced?"

Winnow nodded. "With you personality, the innocent shy girl is some sort of mask that hides your other nature, the lethal killer that you showed in front of the Gamemakers. They watch all the tributes since day one and you must have surprised them when you showed them your knife throwing skills. You hide a strong girl underneath that and that's what they find so interesting!"

Emily stared at her with a bewildered look. That was why? Her aim and the kind of attitude she had was what gave her a high score?

"Come come now! We have to put you in line for your interview!"

*****

Emily was practically shaking as she waited in line for her turn to be interviewed with Ceasar Flickerman. This year he had dyed his hair scarlet, wore a suit and had his lips dyed the same color as his hair. He had just finished his interview with the boy tribute from District 7 when Emily was pulled in to wait behind the curtains onstage.

Her heart was thumping hard and fast as she waited for her name to be announced. She jumped when Caesar's voice started again, "Ladies and gentlemen! Emily Horwitz! Of District 8!" he announced.

That was her cue . . .

She walks out and looked towards the crowd, who was rather hard to see because of the lights beaming at her, but she could hear them. All of them. Cheering and clapping for her as she made way to Caesar. They shook hands before they seated themselves.

"Well hello Ms. Emily. You look rather radiant today. Each time I see you, whether it be on screen or in person, you take on a different look," Caesar complimented.

Emily lightly smiled and responded, "Well thank you Caesar. You should really be complimenting my stylist since she's the one that comes up with my outfits."

"She really has outdone herself," Caesar smiled.

"You look really good too Caesar," Emily smiled wider, getting a little more comfortable in his presence. It was his job to make the tributes feel comfortable, especially if they were terribly nervous like Emily was.

"Thank you Emily, I do try my best," he laughed and everybody joined in, including Emily. "How are you enjoying the Capitol so far Emily?"

"Oh. I only get the time to see it at nighttime, but that's all I really need. It's beautiful really. Gorgeous lights at night, it's practically radiant," she answered.

"Oooooooh I see we have ourselves a night owl girl. Possibly an advantage you'll use for the Games?" Caesar asked in interest.

Emily laughed and leaned back on her chair. "I'm not too sure about that. You'll just have to wait and see," Emily answered.

"Secretive too. I like it!" _BUZZ_! "Oh, out of time. Maybe next time," he nodded, shook her hand and announced her name and district one more time before she left the stage.

*****

"Are you scared?" Emily asked and looked to him.

"Of course I am . . ." Liam answered, looking out to the Capitol, observing the lights of the grand city.

"Tonight might be our last night . . ." she mumbled.

"It's not going to be your last night . . ." Liam shook his head at her.

"You're REALLY that sure I'm going to live longer than a day in that arena?" Emily questioned.

"I am . . ." he nodded. "You don't realize that thinking with your brain is going to get you far in the Games. Instinct is good, but being intelligent and cunning will help you," he explained to her.

"You're probably thinking of another girl. I'm not any of that Liam . . ."

"You have to learn to take compliments and praises. You belittle yourself too often," he shook his head.

"That's just your opinion . . ."

They stay silent, sitting next to each other holding each other's hand, and staring ahead at the brightly lit city. They have known each other since he was twelve, she was ten then. They have grown close enough that holding hands was their sign of friendship. She viewed him as an older brother figure and Liam saw her as a little sister. Nothing more.

"So what's the plan when the gong goes off?" Liam asked her.

Emily blinked and leaned back on the wall. "I don't have a plan . . ." she answered honestly. She had seen the Games and had seen the downside to running to the Cornucopia to get supplies and running away from it. She was afraid of both possibilities. "What about you? Do you have one?"

Liam lightly smiled and nodded. "I have a plan . . ."


	10. Chapter 10: Countdown

Liam took her hand as they were flying in the hovercraft to the arena. He saw the fear in Emily's eyes and kept rubbing her shaking hand. "Just stay away from the Cornucopia . . . run away from it . . ." he whispered to her.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. Emily felt like she was going to be sick. The day she had been dreading the last few days had unfortunately come.

The Games start today . . .

She didn't want to think about it . . . she didn't want to be there . . . why was her name ever picked? And why Liam? Why did it have to be him? Anyone else from District 9 . . . just not Liam . . .

They landed . . .

After they were unlocked Liam embraced her in his strong arms just like when they reunited at the after party. Emily didn't realize until he held her that she was noticeably trembling. Her muscles were stiff with fear.

"You'll be okay . . . just run. Don't look for me. I'll find you, I promise."

"But what if you're hurt . . . what if—"

Liam let out a light laugh, gently took her face, and pressed his forehead to hers. "Must you always think of others before yourself?" She gave him a nervous and scared look and he kissed her forehead. "It's okay, Lamb. Don't count me out early in the Games," he said under his breath. "If we separate at the Cornucopia, keep moving. Don't stop anywhere or they'll find you. Find a good hiding spot—"

"Keep moving!" A Peacekeeper called and tapped both their back. Liam and Emily started moving again, holding each other's hand up until they had to separate.

Emily started having a panic attack the moment Liam's hand slipped away. It was too soon . . . she wasn't ready. She knew . . . it was obvious. Emily wasn't going to make it out. She would be amazed if she made it out of the bloodbath.

Time was ticking faster and next thing she knew she was already in the tube. Did she already say her goodbye to Winnow, who had been so nice to her all that time?

"Survive . . ." she said before the tube's door closed and she was rising up to the surface.

_**Thirty . . . **_

_**Twenty-nine . . .**_

_**Twenty-eight . . .**_

_**Twenty-seven . . .**_

_**Twenty-six . . .**_

Please no . . .

_**Twenty-five . . .**_

_**Twenty-four . . .**_

_**Twenty-three . . .**_

_**Twenty-two . . .**_

_**Twenty-one . . .**_

_**Twenty . . .**_

Her eyes adjust to the light and looked around her surrounding . . .

_**Nineteen . . .**_

_**Eighteen . . .**_

_**Seventeen . . .**_

_**Sixteen . . .**_

_**Fifteen . . .**_

It was all concrete . . . They looked like they were on top of some roof . . .

_**Fourteen . . .**_

_**Thirteen . . .**_

_**Twelve . . .**_

_**Eleven . . .**_

_**Ten . . .**_

There was only one exit door past the Cornucopia . . .

_**Nine . . .**_

_**Eight . . .**_

_**Seven . . .**_

_**Six . . .**_

Emily looked over to Liam and he mouthed her to run.

_**Five . . . **_

_**Four . . .**_

_**Three . . .**_

_**Two . . .**_

_**One . . .**_

Survive . . .

_GONG!_


	11. Chapter 11: Bloodbath

Emily launched herself off her pedestal and away from the Cornucopia. She reached the very edge of the building and looked down at how far the ground was from where she and the tributes were. It must have been five stories high. There were four wings that started at the first floor and rose upwards as high as the main building they were all on. All five roofs only have one exit. The whole arena was just an abandoned grey city. Nothing but buildings, streets, and alleyways.

She kept looking back behind her for any tributes that were about to stab her in the back. But half of them were killing each other while the others who were farther away from the only exit thought the same thing as her and ran for the edge of the building. And like them they're lost. There was a fire escape and windows. But it was a story down. Jumping off and landing on it without support would result in a twisted ankle

She turned around to face the Cornucopia and found a tribute from 12 aiming an arrow at her. Emily was already at the edge and she remembered this tribute to be quite good with her archery. She had no place to run . . .

"Emily!" his voice called out to her.

The tribute fell and released an arrow at her, which was aimed at her head and miraculously ducked before it hit her forehead. She whipped her head up to the tribute and noticed an axe on her back.

"Em! Get up!" He pulled her up onto her feet and readied his bow for other tributes about to come at them. "Check my pack!"

Emily snapped out of her state of shock and dug into one of his three packs he had swiped. No . . . no . . . no . . . she dug into his second pack . . . no . . . no . . . She pulled out some rope from his third pack which was all that was in it and looked to the edge of the building again.

The fire escape!

"Liam! The fire escape!" she exclaimed.

Liam nodded and tied the rope around Emily's waist. "You first! Go!"

"What? No Liam—"

"Now's not the time Em! Go!" he yelled at her, twisting the rope around his arm to help her down.

She knew she wasn't going to argue with him and just jumped. She hit her shoulder against the wall and eventually turned herself to help back down onto the fire escape. How was Liam going to get down? "Liam! I'm down!" she called. The rope that was holding her was tossed down to her. She panicked for a moment then screamed when she saw Liam jump. He landed just beside her and rolled to soften his landing.

The latter only went down one floor, which only lowered themselves to the bottom bit of the fourth floor window. Liam cursed and broke the window with the butt of the axe he had used to kill the tribute that was targeting Emily. The glass shattered, some small shards that had scratched Liam before he widened the hole for the both of them to slip through. He went in first and helped her down too before he pulled her by the hand running through the room into another room. It was nothing but long halls and large rooms that never seem to end.

It was all grey. There was no other color except the blood that was spilt up on the roof above them. It felt like a constant reminder that the world was colorless in the Capitol's power and blood painted over that world to keep the people of Panem afraid.

Emily was gasping for air and her vision was getting fuzzy. She tripped over her feet and fell onto her hand and knees. "Em, we have to keep running!" he said cautiously and pulled her up by the hand and started running again. Tears was running down her face, blurring her vision even more, her only form of comfort was Liam's hand holding hers and even that wasn't making her feel any better.

After running through the maze of a building, Liam pulled them into a room and closed the door shut, using a heavy metal desk to hold the door shut for anyone else that tried to barge in. Emily was trembling and had her eyes shut tight.

_It was only a bad dream. A terrible dream. When I open my eyes again I'll be back home in District 8 in my bed . . .,_ she told herself. She felt a pair of strong arms embrace her and running his fingers through her hair. Emily shook head, denying Liam was there. If he really was there then she really **was** in the Hunger Games. She started to cry, almost scream that was muffled into his chest. "I'm going to die . . . I'm going to die . . . I'm going to die . . ." she kept repeating.

"Em calm down," Liam said to her soothingly, petting her head softly. "You're okay. You're safe . . ." But she didn't take his words for granted. Sure, she was safe for now, but what about in the next hour? Liam quietly shushes her, falling onto their knees and embracing Emily tightly as she sobbed.

All hope of her winning that she felt when she saw her score was gone. There really was no hope for her.

Emily eventually calmed down. They went through the two packs Liam had gotten from the Cornucopia, the third one only had rope that helped them escape. They had a flashlight, knives, a loaf of bread, some wire, rubbing alcohol, gauze, some glasses, and a whistle.

"Why would they give us a whistle? Wouldn't that make us an easy target to find?" Emily asked.

"It's to make a call that one of us are in trouble," he answered and tied it around her neck.

"What about you—?"

"You're going to need more help than I am . . ."

She sighed and stared at him. "You should just leave me for dead . . ."

"You know I'm not going to do that . . ."

"Liam . . . I'm useless. This whole time you've been protecting me while I just freak out and cry . . ."

"That's because you're a lamb . . . you're fragile emotionally," he said quietly.

"Still think you should—"

**BOOM!** Emily's head turned to the sound that echoed throughout the arena. There was the first cannon. The bloodbath must be over. **BOOM!** Another one went off, followed by thirteen more booms. Fifteen tributes dead . . .

There was only nine of them left.


	12. Chapter 12: Top Ten!

Only nine of them left . . . it only hit Emily just then that she actually survived the bloodbath . . . and now she was in the top ten.

"We'll have to get moving soon . . ." Emily said.

"Yeah . . . most likely the Careers are still alive and they'll be out looking for the rest of us," he agreed and got on his feet before she did. "Keep your knives ready."

She nodded and kept three knives in between each pair of fingers in one hand, leaving her other hand free to defend herself. Liam moved the desk over and cracked the door open, peeking left and right for any signs of the Careers.

He slowly opened the door wider and went out first, bow up and ready. Emily felt so pathetic having Liam doing all the work in their alliance while she cowered behind him. They both silently went down the metal stairs, knowing that their weight makes them squeak, it was just like the stairs back in the factory in District 8. Emily looked around as Liam was leading, familiarizing herself with the area.

It felt like she was back in the factory getting ready for work. She hated that feeling. But at the same time . . . it felt like her element. District 8 doesn't have any grasses or trees, nothing but grey buildings and concrete. In other ways, the arena was of her element.

Emily's eyes searched the machinery they passed by, trying to figure out what they would make. Maybe they'll find something that makes bread for them. There was no way their loaf would last four days.

"Stay close Em," Liam said quietly, but loudly enough for her to hear.

Emily quickened her pace a couple strides and continued to walk just behind him. "It's quiet . . ." she said.

"The Gamemakers wouldn't start something when a high number of tributes have been killed already. If nothing happens tomorrow or in two days there definitely will be something coming at us . . ." Liam said. "I think everyone was pretty happy with the bloodbath, as usual."

Emily nodded keeping close to him. Where the hell were the stairs? Felt like they have been walking forever. They find themselves in another hallway, making it easier to spot any tributes. Liam looked ahead while Emily watched behind him for any attackers.

"Are you feeling better now?" Liam asked quietly.

"Well I'm not crying anymore if that's what you mean," she answered. They move into another room, just like the one they were previously in, only there were actually things that the machines have made, or at least offered and the materials placed there for the tributes to find.

Mostly there was molded food like bread or meat that had been left out too long without going cooked, thread, needles left to the side of the thread, some cloth, pressed metal, larger needles with a sharper point than the thread needles, and other useless junk. So they knew for sure they were in some sort of factory.

Emily walked beside Liam as they rounded around a corner and a stinging pain sliced down Emily's arm before she cried out loud. Liam swiftly aimed and shot at the attacker, but the attacker dodged and pinned Emily to the wall wielding a knife, her hand around her neck in a choking hold.

Emily caught the knife that almost touched her breast before she pushed the tribute's head back before Liam pulled the tribute off and remembered seeing her face back in training. "Pomeline!" Emily croaked.

Althea took a better look at Emily then Liam before she gasped and released her hold on Emily. "Oh god! I'm sorry! I thought you guys were Careers," she said. Pomeline is the tribute from Seven. Pomeline and Emily exchanged some tips during training. They weren't the least bit interested talking to each other until their last training day when Abraham said to make friends with Emily.

"Emily is the only red head in this year's games. Should have stopped to remember that before you sliced her arm open," Liam said to examine Emily's arm. It had gone from her shoulder blade to an inch from her elbow and it was oozing a lot of blood.

"I'm so sorry Emily," Pomeline apologized and took her jacket off to press it to Emily's wound. Her blood would leave a trail easy for the Careers to discover.

"It's okay," she said and slightly winced at the pain. "I'm left handed, so I can throw knives," she lightly smiled.

"Come on, let's stop your bleeding," Liam started and walked her to find the best hiding spot the room could offer. Emily looked to the material that the machines were offering and took the needles and thread with her. Pomeline looked at Emily questionably for taking the material with her, keeping her jacket pressed to Emily's wound.

After taking a seat, Emily stripped out of her jacket, wearing her undershirt and looked to the long gash down her arm.

"We'll need to close that up or it'll get infected," Liam said.

Emily then remembered something. "Hey, Pomeline. Can you get me some needle and thread? They're over there," she nodded to one of the machines she and Liam had passed by a while ago.

"Why?" Liam asked as Pomeline went to go look for the items Emily needed.

"I'm going to sew my wound up," she answered. Pomeline handed her a collection of thread and needles. "Thanks."

"Wait what? Em, are you sure you're capable of doing that sort of thing?" Liam fought.

"I've sewed clothes and stuffed animal, and once I fixed up one of my coworker's gash he had gotten during work," she said grimly and concentrated on the thread and putting it into the hole of the needle.

Liam didn't protest. Emily saw he wanted to, but he didn't fight her knowing she would do it anyway. One of Emily's strong points and weak points, once she made a decision she intends on doing it. End of story.

Emily sprayed some rubbing alcohol on her wound, which made her hiss at the pain, before she started sewing her wound shut. Liam was actually surprised Emily was still doing it. That sixteen year old girl from training who was disturbed of the thought of skinning an animal was actually looking at her own wound.

She could still move her arm, so her muscles haven't been completely damaged. It did hurt to flex though. Emily pulled the thread, finishing her work. She remembered Abraham's Game last year when he had lost his hand. She shook the thought of him from her head and sprayed her wound with rubbing alcohol again.

"See Liam? All better," she smirked.

Suddenly something exploded close by them.


	13. Chapter 13: Rest

They weren't near the blast, but the blast made it feel like they were a few feet away from it. Liam had thrown himself over Emily to cover her from the blast. Metal plates flew over their heads and causing a ruckus as loud as the explosion.

What the hell happened?

No time to waste, Emily and Liam got up on their feet and booked it to the door. The Gamemaker must have caused that to get the Careers attention and find them. Liam led the way as they ran out into the hall. Emily looked back and couldn't find Pomeline anywhere.

Emily's ears were ringing, muffling everything around her. She called out to Liam to wait for Pomeline to catch up with us. Liam protested as they kept on running. They found some stairs and went down as far as they could until it stopped on the second floor. There was no way the Careers had made it that far, but Liam kept running and pulling Emily by her wrist to catch up.

They both stop into a cafeteria room and gasped for air. She looked over to Liam and wiped sweat off her brow. "Liam . . . we left . . . Pomeline . . . behind . . ." she gasped.

"I know . . ." Liam sighed, stood up straight, and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked around the room as Emily tried to catch her breath again. The place was too familiar. It was too much like the cold factory back in Eight. As much as Emily wanted to be home right now, she would rather be somewhere that didn't remind her of the dictatorship feeling environment like the factory she always had to go to after school.

Emily got back on her feet and caught up with Liam, looking behind a counter for something. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Looking for something to eat. There isn't that much wildlife outside these walls, so there must be some places in the building we can find to eat and drink," he said as he rummaged through the cabinets.

"Wouldn't that be too easy?"

"Perhaps . . . but we have to get some food somehow. At least some food that hasn't molded yet," he answered.

Emily sighed and hopped over the counter to search with him. She would take a peak over the metal counter once in a while to check if anymore tributes have come into the room. All she knew was that there was eight of them left, maybe Pomeline was still alive since she didn't hear a cannon fire. Then again, her ears were ringing due to the explosion. Maybe she died when the debris of metal chunks were falling over their heads.

Liam groaned and leaned back onto the wall of the counter. "Nothing . . ." he sighed. He took one of the bags he carried and dug through one of them to find the loaf of bread. "Here," he said as he broke a tiny piece and tossed it to Emily. "Who knows how long it will take for us to find something else to eat," he said as he broke a piece for himself and put the rest in his bag.

Emily nodded and took a tiny bite of the bread, savoring the taste of it and trying to make it last longer. They had been running around the place for a long while she didn't realize how hungry she was. But Liam was right . . . it would be days until they found something to eat that wasn't molded. They had to save what they have.

They finish their small piece and started off again. It was starting to get dark and they were beat. They needed a place to rest and someplace away from the windows. The Careers would use them as an advantage to find the last remaining tributes.

Liam led the way, like always, and Emily followed just behind. They rounded around corners of the maze like building and found a room they could stay in. Emily helped Liam push a desk to the door so no one would come inside and settled down. Emily kept her knives in her hand, in case anyone came inside and tried to kill them and gave one to Liam since they knew he wouldn't be fast enough to find his bow, nock an arrow, and release it at anyone. It would take too much time.

The both sat at the back wall of the room, facing the door and remaining close to one another. "Go to sleep Em, I'll keep watch tonight . . ."

"I'll be fine," she mumbled.

"This is a pretty traumatizing day for you lamb . . . you need to rest and keep it together . . ."

She rolled her eyes at him. "I'm fine . . ."

Liam chuckled under his breath. "Stubborn as always . . . once you make up your mind, you tend to stick to it until the deed is done."

"You notice a lot of things, don't you?" she smiled.

He shook his head. "Not a lot of things," he replied quietly and rest his head on hers. Emily tried to keep her eyes open for the rest of the night, but she was too tired to keep them open for long.

She closed her eyes and let sleep take her.


	14. Chapter 14: The Fallen

**BOOM!**

Emily woke up to the sound of the cannon. Eight more now . . . From the small window on the other side of the room blue light rayed through it. It was definitely night.

The Panem's anthem started to play and the wall projected all the fallen tributes that had died on the first day. The tributes from Three, the male Career from Four, both tributes of Five and Six, the tributes, including Pomeline, from Seven, Beaufort from Eight, and everyone else from Ten, Eleven, and Twelve dead.

So Beaufort didn't make it . . .

"Did you know him?" Liam asked.

Emily shook her head. "Not really . . . I saw him a couple times back home. But I hardly spoke to him . . ." she answered. She got herself comfortable again, nuzzling her head to his shoulder and kept her eyes on the door. "Did you fall asleep?"

He shook his head. "No . . . can't sleep. Not when we're here . . ."

She nodded and sighed. "So . . . there's a girl you like," she chuckled. During his interview Caesar asked if there was a girl he had his eye on. He answered that he did back home, but didn't get into detail about it. He kept his crush a secret.

He lightly laughed. "Yeah . . . shocker, huh?"

"Quite . . . you never showed any interest in any girls."

Liam shrugged. "Granted, some of the girls back in Eight are cute. They just didn't strike me as interesting."

"Hey!" she laughed.

"No offense," he laughed back. "You're cute and all. The only interesting girl I'm comfortable talking to. But you don't strike me as the girlfriend type. You're like a kid sister to me," he lightly smiled.

"Meh, not offended that you're not attracted," she giggled. "So tell me about this girl."

She saw, with the little light from the moon, that his cheeks were turning a slight pink color. Trying to keep it together in front of the cameras, Emily thought. "She most likely never noticed me—"

"How can a girl not notice YOU!?" Emily busted out laughing. "Come on! They'd have to be REALLY blind not to notice you. You're an attractive guy."

"Well . . . not sure if she even sees that . . ."

"Then she's a freaking idiot. She's lucky to have you crushing on her," Emily sighed. Alright . . . she had to help Liam. Emily had her friends waiting back in Eight and no one she liked to live for. Liam had his brothers and the girl he had a crush on. He had more to live for than she did. But it would mean she would have to die . . . she would die for Liam's future . . .

Emily was getting sleepy again. She heard Liam lightly snoring beside her and kept her eyes open a little while longer. But alas, sleep was taking her again. She was too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

She woke up, sunlight shining through the small window. Day two . . . she survived through the night. She rubbed her eyes and looked around her, Liam was gone and the desk had been moved. Where did Liam go?

Emily got up, knives in hand and went out. She peeked around the corner to find any sign of Liam. But did not see him. Maybe he woke up to search for something to eat. She could always meet up with him. Now . . . where the heck was that cafeteria they found yesterday?

She rounded some corners, only to find dead ends here and there. Stupid Gamemakers making the building so damn hard to figure out . . . and claustrophobic . . . were the walls closing in on her? Emily went around some more corners and finally went out into the hall. It looked familiar to yesterday.

Emily then heard a group of laughter coming around the corner. She gasped and started to run back to where she came from. But they saw her. "Look! There's one!" one of the Careers said with enthusiasm and started running with everyone.

"Hey! Where ya goin!?" another one called to her, having a lot of fun chasing a running tribute.

_Don't look back . . . keep running. You'll lose them in the maze. Keep running!_ Emily thought to herself. She was fast . . . but the Career from Four is faster. "Got ya!"

Emily struggled and screamed.


	15. Chapter 15: Burn!

Emily blew at her whistle that she wore around her neck. At first she thought it was stupid for her to wear it since Liam was going to be by her side and away from danger. Now she was grateful that he gave it to her.

She just hoped he could hear it and come quick before the Careers killed her.

"Oh, just stop already!" the girl from One exclaimed and pulled the whistle out of Emily's mouth and choked her with the string of the whistle. Emily tried to pull it away from her throat, but the tribute from One wasn't allowing her any space to pull it off.

"Lay off Pearl, you don't wanna kill her too soon," the guy from Two said.

Pearl huffed and loosened her grip around the whistle. "Might as well kill her now. She was calling her boyfriend," she laughed.

Emily tried to protest, but the boy from Two kicked her in the stomach. She coughed and gasped for air, the pain of the kick stung her like a bitch. They pull her up and shoved her to the wall. Em pulled the string away from neck, taking in deep breaths and felt the burning sensation around her neck from the whistle necklace.

She blew at the whistle for a split second before one of the Careers threw a spear at her and hit just beside her face. Emily froze and kept her eyes to the Careers . . . she was really going to die . . . it was just her against the five of them . . .

Liam . . . hurry . . .

"You really want to die that badly, huh?" the boy from Two said. If Emily remembered perfectly, the boy's name was Alto.

During the interviews she was more afraid of making a fool of herself in front of everyone, including anyone watching from their districts. She only heard a few names, but couldn't remember whose face belonged to what name.

Emily quickly dug through her pocket and instinctively Alto approached her and grabbed her by the throat. "No funny business!" he snarled.

She spat in his eye, kicked him away and shoved a needle in the back of his neck. And like a fly, he dropped to the ground.

The girl from Two squealed at the sight of her ally drop like a corpse. Emily would laugh, if she wasn't terrified out of her bleeding mind. She didn't kill Alto, she hit a nerve on his spine that paralyzed him. Something Harmony taught her to relieve stiff muscles a long time ago. She was interested in acupuncture techniques and learned which nerve effects what part of the body. Emily never thought it would come in handy for the Games.

She went through her pocket again for another needle, but two of them came at her and pulled her hand out before she could get a hold of her "weapon." Pearl pulled the needle out of Alto's neck, and just as easy as it was to immobilize him, his body relaxes and moves a little.

Alto glared up at her, got up on his feet, and slapped her across the face before he pushed a knife to her neck. "Nice trick and all . . . but you're completely outnumbered . . ."

No need to point that out . . . what's taking them so long anyway? They could kill her there! So what was the hold up!?

"What I'm trying to understand . . . is how the hell you got such a high score . . ." he said. What? "You don't look all that . . . what did you do to get a good score? I'm surprised really . . . someone from the textile district getting a ten . . . that's impressive," he smirked. "But . . . you're just a pretty face after all . . ." He then lifted the knife to her cheek and pressed the blade roughly at her. "But what if I peel your face like an apple?"

"OH! OH! Do it Alto!" Pearl said with enthusiasm, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she gripped Emily by her wrist.

Shit . . . shit . . . this was it.

Suddenly the alarm goes off and the sprinklers turn on. For a second it didn't bother them, until a burning sensation consumes them. Pearl screams and covers herself, but her skin sizzles from the mere contact of the water.

No . . . not water . . . acid?

It was hurting Emily too, but due to the circumstances back at Eight, being a terrible place to live due to the cold weather, there were times when workers don't work hard enough they spray some acid against their back to make them work faster. Emily took advantage of everyone's surprise and kicked Alto in the groin, swiped the girl from Two's feet and made her fall over, and punched boy from One. The other two tried to catch her, but Emily threw knives at their legs and made a run for it.

She pulled her hood over her head and ran down the halls. "Liam!" she called out. Where was he?

She heard footsteps echoing outside the halls and ran into Liam. "Em!" He pulled her in, broke a window, and jumped out into a tree.

"Ow ow ow!" Emily hissed and scrubbed her hands and cheeks.

"Em! Don't! We need to wash it all off," Liam said and took Emily's hands from doing any more harm to herself.

"Where the hell did you go off to!?" she exclaimed.

Liam stared at her for a moment. Emily NEVER cursed. Whenever she did, it was usually when she was royally pissed. "I went to go find something to eat for us instead of us just eating bread."

"Didn't you hear the whistle!?"

"Calm down Em . . ." he said and helped her out of the tree. There was so little forest life . . . but the land looked dead. They doubt there was anything to drink out there. "Yes, I heard the whistling. I found you crowded by the Careers, but I knew that if I attacked then they would threaten to kill you faster. From the look of it they wanted to toy with you first. I took advantage of that and went looking for something to surprise them. At first I thought the fire alarm would trigger the sprinklers and use the water to give them the slip and get you out of there before they figured what happened . . . wasn't expecting the water to be acid rain . . ."

"Very smart Liam," she growled.

"Quiet down. You're still alive," he said and lifted her chin. "Although you took a lot more damage than I thought."

"No shit . . ."

"Quit cursing. It doesn't suit you," Liam sighed and lightly pushed her inside the building.

"Why are we going back inside?"

"I noticed that there was no way of getting to the first floor. I assume its because the best stuff is on the first floor compared to the upper floors. I found some water on the second floor, but there was algae and mold in the water system and the food was molding . . . we might find something down here . . ." Liam explained.


	16. Chapter 16: Paralysis!

"Ow . . . ow . . . ow . . ." Emily hisses as she dabbed fresh water on her face. Liam was right, there was fresh water on the first floor, but not a lot of food to eat.

"Sorry . . ." Liam apologized for the one-hundredth time.

"You didn't know . . ." Emily sighed. Their jackets were still in tact, at least they knew it could protect them from acid. "I must look like a mess . . ."

"You're still pretty no matter how many scars you have," Liam complimented.

"Charming . . ." Emily mumbled as she remembered Alto's remark that she was just a pretty face. Maybe that was why they scored her so high . . .

She heard a beeping sound that faintly echoed through the halls of the first floor. Emily kept turning her head around to find the general direction it was coming from. Liam was walking out the door, he heard the beeping sound too and found a parachute that glided close to the door.

"Looks like we got something," Liam called out. Emily came outside when Liam opened up the metal container that held some sort of cream.

"What is it?" she asked.

Liam opened a small piece of paper and read the small note. "Stay pretty—Phox . . . who's Phox?"

"My mentor," she laughed. "Sounds more like something my escort would say," she chuckled. Liam looked at the cream questionably and dabbed a little onto his injured hand. "Anything?"

"Feels a lot better than cooling it down with water," he sighed and passed the container to Emily. "You need it more than me," he smiled.

Emily rolled her eyes at him and took the container before she started applying the cream to her face and hands. Afterward, she removed her jacket and pulled her hair into a ponytail.

"Does your skin feel better?" Liam asked.

"It doesn't sting, if that's what you mean," she nodded and applied a little more cream. Emily walks over to the stove and checks the low supply of food. "Well at least they're no rotting," she said.

"Yeah, but we shouldn't stay here too long," Liam said. He rolled his shoulders and his expression tweaked a little from the pain.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah . . . a little sore is all . . ." he replied with a slight smile.

She shook her head and walked over to him with a needle in her hand. "Hold still and don't move," she instructed him. "Were does it hurt?"

"Right here," he pointed to his shoulder. Before he could ask what she was planning on doing, she stabbed the needle into his shoulder. Liam jumped at the sudden sharp tweak in his shoulder, but soon his shoulder started to feel better.

Emily pulled the needle out a second later. "Roll your shoulder."

Liam did as he was instructed, the painful knot was gone as if it was never there. "How did you do that?"

"Harmony taught me acupuncture to relax muscles to get rid of cramps and knots. I used it on one of the Careers and paralyzed him."

"YOU PARALYZED A CAREER!?" Liam exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah . . ." Emily blinked in surprise at Liam's outburst. "But I was outnumbered, so they got me to stop before I could get anyone else . . ."

"But lamb . . . you actually showed them you were a threat!"

"Yeah . . . for like a moment before they restrained me," she sighed. "They're not exactly scared of me of they still wanted to try and kill me."

"That's because Careers attack in teams to gain each other's trust. Overall, if you were going one on one with anyone, you'd surprise them with your needles," Liam said with much enthusiasm.

Emily laughed and held his hand. She wanted to argue that she wouldn't get out alive . . . but he would object to that, as usual. Sure, she paralyzed someone . . . she still wouldn't have the courage to take a life . . .

Liam and Emily ate whatever the first floor food offered before making a move. They decided to take refuge toward the forest. There was bound to be animals out there that Liam could hunt.

When they reach the end of the trees, "STOP!" someone called out to them. Emily froze and Liam drew his bow towards were the voice came from. Emily looked in the same direction and searched for the voice. "Don't go there . . ." the voice warned.

"Why?" Emily asked.

"That's the edge of the arena . . . the trees you see ahead of you are projections from the force field . . . one of the tributes that got away from the bloodbath tried to take refuge towards the trees and . . . well they didn't come out alive," the voice said and appeared from one of the bushes.

"Althea!"


	17. Chapter 17: GirltoGirl Talk!

"Thanks for telling us about the force field," Emily said as she tossed a rock at the force field. It hit with a zap and bounced back into her hand.

"It's no problem . . ." Althea said with a slight smile. "I bet the Gamemakers made the arena smaller since the buildings are already huge as it is. The size of it makes up the arena already."

"Makes it harder since the things we need would make us ill . . . and to get anything from sponsors we all should go outside. It makes it easier for Careers to find us," Liam said as he watched the girls. He was watching the door for anyone to come near. It was only the three of them against the five Careers.

"They have to be alive . . . there hasn't been any cannon fire today . . ." Emily mumbled as she peeled off the dry skin that the cream created. Underneath it was as if she was never burned by the acid sprinklers.

"They're bound to kill each other soon if they can't find us," Althea shrugged.

"I don't think so . . . typically Careers last until it's just them that's left," Liam said. Althea eyed him. "Sorry, your optimism doesn't apply here . . ."

Althea rolled her eyes at him and looked back at Emily. "He's always like that . . .

"Really depends on the situation," Emily shrugged. "You only met him at the reaping right?"

"I had a few conversations with him before. But from what I know he has been like this since the after party when we all got off our chariots," Althea answered.

The after party? That time when he and Emily reunited?

Emily convinced Liam to go to sleep so she and Althea could keep watch. "He needs to rest . . . I don't think he even slept last night . . ." Emily said when she heard him start to snore.

"It's understandable . . . you two have been allies since training, right?" Emily nodded. "You mean a lot to him . . . after the parade, when he and I had to go back to rest for training, he would NOT stop talking about you," she laughed.

"Now that's not true," she laughed.

"It is! Although it was all on me, I was curious why he seemed a little happier and I asked him what happened. He told me about how he got to see an old friend of his and told me loads of stories about the two of you."

Emily chuckled and leaned back on the wall towards the door. "So he was miserable back in Nine?"

"He never looked happy. He was . . . well, he wasn't really the most social person I have ever met. A decent guy, but he was pretty quiet. All of a sudden he was talkative since he saw you again." Althea saw the slight smile on Emily's face and looked back at Liam then Emily again. "So what do you think about him?"

Emily blinked at her and tilted her head. "Think about him?"

"You know . . . as a guy?" Emily stared at her with a confused look. "As a guy you want to be with?"

"OH! Oh, goodness no! He's just a childhood friend . . . he's like an older brother to me!" Emily blushed.

Althea furrowed her brows at her. "I don't think he feels the same way . . ." Emily stared at her when Althea turned away and lied back down. "The Careers haven't figured out how to get down here just yet . . . we're safe to sleep . . ."

Emily looked at Althea then back at the sleeping Liam. He didn't? What did she mean he didn't feel the same way?


	18. Chapter 18: Trust

Three more days went by and eight tributes remained. All tributes from One and Two, one from Four, one from Eight, and all from Nine.

Althea stuck around Emily and Liam since Althea agreed with Liam back in the Capitol that they would all be allies and go after the Careers together. Althea became friends with Emily easily and was warming up to Liam a little. Liam kept eyeing the two, as if something was going to happen soon.

Nothing had happened in days and haven't seen the Careers since that time when they tried to get Emily.

Her skin healed with a scar here and there. Most of them were around her cheeks and hands. The medicine really helped, it healed up Emily's face and hands as well as Liam's hands within a day.

The arena really is small. There's a bunch of buildings and alleyways around, and the trees was just an illusion of a park. Althea told them that the Gamemakers probably wanted to recreate cities from before the Dark Days. Great cities with the occasional greenery for people to relax and play.

The main building they were in was basically a factory right smack in the middle while other buildings held empty rooms. The factory has five wings that rose up five floors. The buildings around them was around four that were the size of the warehouses that Eight had to carry fabric for the outfits they made.

The place had no color . . . nothing but grey . . .

The three of them go around a corner and hear voices. They stop and inch away back as quietly as possible. The Careers . . . they finally found a way out of the factory . . .

They slip through a sliding door and into one of the warehouses and lose themselves inside, hiding somewhere in the maze of boxes and stopped to listen. They couldn't hear any of them . . . they passed by a while ago perhaps.

"I think we should rest and think of a plan to get them . . ." Althea said. Emily nodded. Liam quietly sighed and went around some boxes and found a corner they could all hide in. "Want me to check the doors to hear out the Careers?"

"That would be best . . . thanks . . ." Liam nodded before Althea went away.

"Hey . . . Liam . . .?"

Liam looked to Emily. "Yes?"

She was about to say something that had been bothering her, but stopped herself. He didn't think of her as a friend . . . why was he hanging around her? Was she annoying him? Had he been playing her as someone she could trust the whole time?

She shook her head and put up a small fake smile. "Nothing . . ."

Liam stared at her for a while then looked into the same direction where Althea went off to. "Okay . . . could you hold on a moment?" he asked and walked around the buildings. Emily sighed and ran her fingers through her hair before she heard a scream.

Althea!?

Emily took her knives and ran for Althea and Liam. Althea's screams and grunts could be heard until Emily found her struggling to fight Liam off. Althea saw Emily for a moment before Liam slashed her throat with the knife that Emily gave her.

Emily screamed in horror just before the cannon boomed. Seven to go . . .

Liam turned to Emily and saw her horrified look. "Em—"

"Why did you kill her!?" Emily exclaimed.

"Em, there was eight of us left. Sooner or later she would come after us!" Liam scolded.

"What if she didn't!? What if she stuck by our side and get herself killed by the Careers instead!?"

"Emily! You don't get it! She was plotting to kill you!" Emily gawked at him. "She stuck around this whole time to gain your trust before she killed you in your sleep. You're an easy target!"

Emily's eyes widened. "Excuse me!?"

"You're an easy target. All the tributes saw that. Your guard is never up, you trust people too fast, you show no threat whatsoever," he started listing and stopped himself. "You're the weakest one of us . . ."

"Really . . .?" she started, glaring at him. "You don't say . . . You think I don't know that!?" she exclaimed and dropped her bag and knives to the floor and crossed her arms. "You honestly think I have a chance of WINNING these Games? I DON'T! And everyone knows it!" she yelled. She ran her hands through her hair, pulling her hair from its roots in frustration. "I don't know why I'm still alive . . . I don't even know why you're still with me . . ."

"Because I'm your friend . . ."

"FRIENDSHIP DOESN'T EXIST HERE LIAM!" she cried. "Not here . . . not in the arena . . ." she whispered.

Liam shook his head and didn't answer. He knew all that and she saw that in his body movement. Friendship didn't exist in the Games. Even if the tributes have known each other for years . . . eventually they would be forced to kill each other.

"If I'm such an easy target why haven't you killed me yet?"

"You know I wouldn't be able to—"

"But you will . . . if I somehow make it to the last two and you're the last opponent, you will . . ." Emily zipped down her jacket and stripped it off before she pointed to her heart. "Do it . . ."

"What—?"

"DO IT!" she yelled. "There's five more Careers and us . . . they'd kill me in the most merciless way . . . for you it's one shot."

Liam shook his head before he dropped his weapons, took her face, and kissed her deeply. Emily was taken by surprise and backed away from his lips, but he had pulled her in by the waist to keep kissing her. He ran his fingers through her hair and softly kissed her before he pulled back.

"I would never bring myself to kill you . . ." he whispered. "I love you too much to do it . . ."


	19. Chapter 19: Ruined

Emily backed away and lightly touched her fingertips to her lips. She kept her eyes on Liam just as he kept his gaze on Emily. He kissed her . . . he loved her?

"The girl from back home . . ." Emily mumbled.

"I never said she was a girl from Nine . . ." he said. "Emily . . . Eight has always been my home . . . it was where I was born and raised . . . where you were . . ."

She honestly didn't know how to react. She saw Liam kill a person, screamed at him to kill her, kissed her, and confessed that he loved her . . . she didn't know what to feel in that situation. She ran her fingers through her hair and paced around the room. "Okay . . . okay . . . you—you have feelings for me . . . how long?"

Liam stared at her with a sad look on his face. She knew her reaction wasn't what he hoped for. "Since you were of age to participate in the Games . . . the moment you turned twelve I realized that I wouldn't know what to do if your name were chosen and you had to be sent here . . ." he answered.

Four years . . . he had been in love with her for four years . . .

"I wanted to tell you . . . I wanted to tell you the day I had to go to Nine . . . but I couldn't. It was just too late for me to say anything," his voice trailed.

"And telling me here is okay?" she mumbled.

"I wasn't going to tell you here either . . . I was planning on taking it with me to the grave . . ." he sighed and picked up his things. "Come on . . . we should hide and rest . . ."

Emily nodded and picked up her things as well before the walked to their spot somewhere in the maze of boxes. How was she suppose to feel? Liam had loved her for years . . . and she never thought of him more than a big brother. It hurt her to know how he felt about her and not share the same feelings . . .

Would things have been different if he told her sooner? Would she love him back if he told her his feelings back in Eight? Would she have been his if he told her when she was thirteen? And what if he was never transferred? Would they have been together? And what if . . . what if him staying in Eight resulted in them never participating in the Games?

It couldn't be . . . it was just mere coincidence that they both were in the same Game. The Capitol wouldn't have rigged the reaping and chose the two of them just to kill each other . . . would they?

Liam and Emily threw their stuff into the corner and crawled over the box and hid behind the box. Emily hugged her knees and stared at Liam, her heart felt heavy. Everything . . . just hurt. She cried in her knees before Liam scoot over and cradled her. She turned to him and buried her face to his chest, allowed him to hold her close as she cried.

These Hunger Games . . . just ruined everything . . .


	20. Chapter 20: Sorry

Emily and Liam haven't eaten anything in days. A week had already passed and seven of them still remained.

Liam tried to touch Emily as less as possible. Since she finally knew of his feelings, anything he did was a sign of affection as a man in love with a woman. Emily questioned why she didn't notice sooner . . .

They both noticed that the tension between them was entertaining people back in the Capitol. A one-sided love. One of them questioned their feelings for the other while the other one was very sure of their feelings.

It had been too quiet for a while . . . something was coming . . . Emily could feel it in the atmosphere . . . the Gamemakers were planning something . . .

"I'm sorry Em . . ."

Emily looked at him as they walked down the street. "What?"

"I shouldn't have told you . . . I should have kept it to myself . . ." Liam said.

She sighed and squeezed his shoulder. "It's okay . . ." she replied quietly. A part of her wished she could love him back. Maybe . . . if there was such thing, in a different universe where the Hunger Games didn't exist maybe they were together. Maybe there she would love him back . . . if only . . .

"How about we rest for the day . . ." Liam suggested. Emily nodded and followed him into a different building. It was too quiet . . . soon the Gamemakers were going to do something. No one had died in three days and seven of them remained. Five Careers and Liam and Emily. They had something planned out. They couldn't keep running away . . . they had to kill the rest of the Careers before they find them.

But Liam wouldn't want that. He wanted to protect Emily from them. He was probably capable of killing the rest of them and they want to go after the weakest of them all.

It was no use though . . . someone as weak as her winning the Games never happened.

Emily stripped out of her jacket when Liam said, "Stay here. I'll go find something for us to eat . . ." She nodded and let him go. She picked up the bow and arrow that she took from Althea's dead body and practiced using it. Her body trembled a little, the thought that it was her and Liam against five tributes that had been training for the Games their whole lives. There was no way they would survive.

A Career was going to win the Games that year again.

She then heard a whistle coming from outside. What the hell? She looked out the window looking for the source of the sound. "LIAM!" a voice cried out. Wait a minute . . . that was her voice . . . "LIAM!"

Emily's eyes widened. A trap! She saw Liam climb out a window from a different room and run out into the streets toward the sound of Emily's screaming voice. Emily ran out after him, she had to stop him. Not now! Not him! "LIAM!" Emily screamed.

Liam turned around and saw Emily, safe and sound. "Em—"

He was cut short by a spear through his chest. Emily cried out in horror.


	21. Chapter 21: The Plan

Emily drew her bow and shot at the person who stood up on the roof. The arrow hit and the Career collapsed out of view.

Emily turned to Liam and ran to him. "LIAM!" she cried and held his head. Liam cracked his eyes open weakly and coughed up blood. Emily quietly cried as tears ran down her face. She was hyperventilating and her vision was blurring. "_This can't be happening . . . it's a bad dream . . . a really bad dream . . ._" Emily thought to herself.

She wanted to pull the spear out of him, but it was so deep in and it would hurt him even more if she moved it. There was . . . no hope of saving him. He REALLY was going to die then and there.

"Liam . . ." she whimpered.

"Lamb . . . it's okay . . . this was part of the plan . . ." Liam forced from his lips.

Emily looked at Liam and gently pulled his hair from his face. His blue eyes staring up at hers with so much love for her. "The plan . . .?"

He caressed her cheek with a shaking hand and weakly pulled her hair behind her ear. "I never planned on getting out of here alive . . ." he replied. "Ever since I saw you at the after party . . ." he stopped and coughed a little, "I promised myself I would stay by your side so you would win the Games."

Tears ran down her face even more. That was why he protected her all that time? Because he wanted her to win the whole time? He never planned on coming out alive. "You're so stupid . . ." she whispered.

He lightly chuckled and pulled her in for their second kiss. She tasted his blood, but completely ignored it and kissed him back. Emily . . . loved him. Maybe not as strongly as he loved her, but loved him in every way. As a friend, as a brother . . . as a man. She loved him and wish she had known that sooner . . .

"I love you Emily . . . I'm grateful that I met you . . . and got to see you again . . ." his voice trailed. His eyes fluttered a little and his eyes were starting to glaze.

"No . . no Liam . . . please, let's talk some more," Emily whimpered and pressed her forehead to his. "Liam . . . I do love you . . . I thought of you so much since you left to live in Nine . . . I hated that the only person that understood me and believed in me left. I'm sorry . . . I'm sorry I didn't realize how you felt about me . . . I wish I found out sooner . . ." she cried quietly. Her body trembled and sobbed a little. "Liam . . . please . . ."

"Em . . . you'll be okay . . ." he sighed. He slowly ran his fingers through her hair, kissed her tears away, and kissed her lips last. "You'll be okay . . ." Emily shook her head, denying his words. She kissed him that time, her lips trembled at the very touch of his cold lips. "I love you Emily . . ."

"I love you too . . ." she cried. The cannon fire boomed and echoed throughout the arena. Another fallen warrior . . .

The moment the cannon boomed . . . Emily blacked out.


	22. Chapter 22: The Feast!

The one that killed Liam . . . that Career was still alive . . . there was no cannon fire for that death. There was still six of them left . . .

The day Liam died was when the feast was announced for the next day on the roof of the factory where the Cornucopia was located. The Careers were sticking together so they weren't worried about the tribute from Eight killing them. She was weak, there was no way she was going to get them anyway.

"There's only one other tribute left," Alto said and shrugged. "She's not a threat. Only one of us can go up and get our packs and kill the girl."

"Oh! Can I have a go at her? I didn't get the chance last time we had her," the girl from Four said.

"Alright. Fir, you can go," Alto nodded as he picks at the wound the girl from Eight caused. The girl getting a ten had something to do with her looks, that was for sure. If she were really that good she would have escaped and killed them when they captured her that one time. She only escaped that time because the acid rain surprised them with the help of her companion.

It would have been harder to kill her if her friend from Nine were still alive. They saw how important she was to him. They saw he would have done anything to keep her alive. The only way to get her was to get to him.

Alto planned out using the whistle. That didn't work too well, so Alto did another trick. He was always good at mimicking other people's voices, he only needed to hear a person once to know how to imitate their voice. He got a good hear of Eight during her interview and of course her scream a couple days ago.

The guy actually believed his ally was in trouble. And look where they got him . . .

The next day, Fir went up to the roof and peeked around the only exit door and didn't see the girl at all. She ran to the Cornucopia and looked around the mouth to see if the girl was there. Nope, not a soul.

The table held the bags for One, Two, Four, and Eight. The bag for Eight is still there, so she hadn't come by just yet.

Fir took the three bags for herself and her ally when she heard giggling up above her. She looked up at the top of the horn when she heard a writhing pain spread around her legs. Fir collapsed and held her legs, arrows had shot her shines and went through her legs. She looked up and saw the girl from Eight landed on her feet in front of her.

The girl from Eight smiled at her in an menacing way as she slowly approached the girl. "Awww . . . poor little one can't walk anymore?" she pouted before she giggled.

What the hell—was the girl from Eight always like this? There was no light in her grey eyes, her laugher sounded as if she lost her mind, and they way she was swaying . . . oh god, she lost her mind!

Fir backed away, but the red head pulled the girl up by her hair, pulled her up before she stabbed something in the back of her neck. Fir tried to struggle away, but her arms and legs wouldn't move. What did she—! Oh wait . . . she did it once before. The girl paralyzed Fir . . .

Eight shoved her back onto her knees, took Fir's axe and walked away. Fir wanted to sigh with relief that she was leaving her alone. But she turned around, had an amused look in her dead green eyes, made a big psychotic smile, and swung her axe at the girls neck.

Fir's head fell off her shoulders and a cannon fire boomed for the death of the last remaining District Four tribute.

Emily took all the bags and walked to the edge of the building. She licked the blood off of the axe and smiled a dark smile.


	23. Chapter 23: Lunch!

Silver, the girl from Two was the one that found Fir's dead body on the roof and all the bags gone. Fir's body was still on its knees, frozen to the spot. She called for Alto, Calico from One, and Pearl to come up and look at the damage.

They all found the needle at Fir's neck. It was already obvious who killed Fir since they were all together . . . they just didn't want to believe it.

"Think she's pissed that you killed her boyfriend?" Calico asked Alto.

"Most likely. Don't tributes outside of the Career districts usually become emotionally attached to their allies?" Alto shrugged. "Well, she got one of us. There's still four of us left."

They looked around the roof for the girl from Eight and for their packs, but she had gotten away with them all. They would think that spotting a girl with blazing red hair would be easy to find . . . it wasn't . . . and she didn't leave a trail. "Let's get out of here . . . it gives me the creeps that Fir slipped up and let the girl kill her . . ."

"Relax Pearl," Alto laughed. "We're aware she's looming around somewhere."

"She has stuff we need. We have been living off food from the Cornucopia and we ran out two days ago . . ." she reminded him. "Whatever was in those bags, she has them now and is going to use them against us."

"You're SCARED!? Of a girl from District Eight of all places!?" Alto teased. "Seriously we're fine. Just chill."

Pearl look back before they all went back inside the building and away from Fir's corpse. "I'll go find something for us to eat. There's bound to be something around," Calico said.

"Sure, bring someone with you, just in case," Alto nodded.

Silver joined Calico as they explore the floor. "Wonder how she snuck up on Fir," Silver said.

"She probably got to the Cornucopia before she did. Camped out and attacked when she had her back to her. Stuff like that happens sometimes," Calico said. He and Silver walk into the next room and pass by a bunch of machines and wood. There was a huge machine that held wood and coal, probably used to melt the metal if the building were an actual factory.

Something landed just behind them, they began to turn but something stabbed into their neck. They were kicked to the ground and fall flat on their face. They couldn't move their bodies and realized what was happening. This sort of thing must have happened to Fir. Had their backs turned to the enemy before she ambushed them and paralyzed them with her needles.

"_I'm singing in the rain . . . Just singing in the rain . . . What a glorious feelin' I'm happy again,_" the red head girl sang as she gathered some wood. What the hell was she doing? "_I'm laughing at clouds . . . So dark up above . . . The sun's in my heart . . . And I'm ready for love . . . Let the stormy clouds chase everyone from the place . . . Come on with the rain . . . I've a smile on my face,_" she continued and threw wood on top of them. "_I walk down the lane . . . With a happy refrain._ She covered them in wood and started to dump something that smelled of liquor all over them. They heard something and looked at the girl with fire in between her fingers. They widened their eyes when they saw the malicious look on her face. "_Just singin', singin' in the rain,_" she continued and dropped the match onto them.

The wood immediately caught on fire when the flames licked the liquor. Silver and Calico burned and screamed out in pain. The red head girl skipped over to the door and locked it so the last two Careers couldn't get inside. She shoved a pipe into the handles of the door and even shoved desks in front of the door before she went over to the screaming bodies that were catching on fire.

Their screams . . . their pain . . . their agony . . . filled her with joy.

Emily took out a piece of meat from her bag, stabbed it onto an arrow, and put it over the fire to roast. She whistled as her victims' skin started to bubble and blacken.

Eventually the cannon fired twice . . . and just in time for lunch.


	24. Chapter 24: Art!

"She got both of them!" Pearl screamed.

Alto stared at the charred remains of his companions. She even got two of them. How—how did she get them? He looked up and saw the metal railing. She must have been waiting for them to walk beaneath her before she ambushed them.

"Alto—"

"I KNOW!" he exclaimed and looked to Pearl. "We can't explore around now . . . she's capable of getting us when we least expect it . . ." Alto stopped and kept looking around for any sign of the red haired girl. She could be anywhere . . . "We should find a place to hide . . ." He hated that someone from the TEXTILE district of all places was actually getting them to run and hide. But . . . he saw what the girl left behind and did to his allies . . . They had been training all their lives to participate in the Hunger Games . . . and someone who just learned how to throw knives a week ago actually killed them . . . they had no choice but to hide and make a plan.

There were only three of them left. He always thought that it would be him against the rest of the Careers. He didn't have to worry about anyone else, it was the Careers he had his hopes of fighting instead.

Pearl and Alto go into a room that looked like an office and pushed desks in front of the door. They were safe . . . they were okay. There was no way she could get inside the room now. There was a small window, but it was too small for anyone to slip through.

The both watched the door, paranoid that the red head could get in somehow. They were actually scared of what she was capable of . . . what she could do to them if she did get them . . .

They stayed in there for two days . . . starving . . . thirsty . . . above all she never found them.

Until the third day . . . they heard a scratching on the door.

"Hellooooooooooo . . . is anybody theeeeeeeeeeeeeeere? Come out and plaaaaaaaaaaaaay," the red headed girl said before she laughed like a lunatic.

She really did lose it . . . she never talked that way from what they heard. She looked like a scared puppy when she watched the timer before the gong went off at the start of the Game and avoided them at all times . . . now she was searching for them and REALLY wanted to kill them.

"Yoohooooooooooooo . . . I know you're in theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere . . . " Go away . . . just go away. No one was there . . . please believe they were there and just leave! She kept scratching at the door, humming "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

All went silent hours later. They got closer to the door and looked underneath the door to check if she was standing in front of the room. Nothing . . . they listened carefully to hear her breathing . . . not a sound . . .

"I can't take this anymore Alto . . ." Pearl whispered. She knew they were there . . . "Let's just go find her and kill her now!"

Alto was debating on the idea. They discussed what they would do to end the crazy girl's life, but nothing came to mind. She attacked them from above probably . . . and she found them . . . maybe it was best to leave now before she came back.

He nodded and moved the desk away as quietly as possible. They took in a deep breath and swung the door open slowly. Alto peeked to the left before something hit his head and blacked out. Pearl squealed and backed away before the red head girl walked around the corner with a satisfied glint in her crazy wide eyes.

Pearl picked the spear and thrust it at Emily, who dodged it and kicked the girl's face, pulled the spear out of her hand and stabbed the girl in the shoulder to the wall. Pearl screamed in pain and grabbed the girl's hair and thrust a knife into her stomach. The girl pulled Pearl's hand away, took the knife out of her stomach and stabbed the blade to the hilt into the palm of Pearl's hand to the wall. Has the always been that freakishly strong!?

Oh god . . . she was going to die . . . this girl REALLY was going to kill her. With her free hand, she tried to pull the knife out of her hand, but the red head girl took that free hand and stabbed it to the wall.

"No no no . . . a piece of art should stay still while the artist creates the masterpiece," she smiled as she checked the knife wound that Pearl caused. She wiped some blood off her wound and sucked it off her finger as her eyes searched Pearl. "Nooooooooow . . . what should I do with you?" she questioned, stepped back and stared at Pearl pinned to the wall, bleeding, crying, and in so much pain. She then snapped her fingers. "Oh yes . . . have to even it out of course . . ." she cooed and walked over to Alto's unconscious body, took his swords, and stabbed Pearl's legs. She pulled the spear out as slowly as possible, twisted it on the way out, and dropped it beside her. "I won't be needing that . . ." the girl smiled.

Pearl took a good look at her. Her hair was a mess, green eyes lost the light of life with them, her shirt and hands all bloody. That girl from training and the interview . . . the girl in front of her wasn't the same one anymore . . . in front of her was an actual killer . . .

Emily . . . right . . . her name was Emily . . . she took out a knife from her pack and pressed the tip of the blade to Pearl's stomach. She then moved it to the bottom of Pearl's shirt and pulled it up, ripped it up with the blade until it was cut in half.

"Ooooooooh . . . pretty clear skin . . ." Emily licked her lips and started to carve into Pearl's stomach. Pearl started screaming, begging Alto to wake up and save her. "Shhhhh shhh shh shh. Quiet now, or you'll break my concentration," Emily sang.

Tears ran down the Pearl's face and tried to pull her hands off the wall. But the knives and swords were deep into the wall, she couldn't escape.

Emily backed away and looked at the message she had created onto Pearl and smiled. Perfect! She then stared at Pearl and slowly approached her, took her face, and examined it. "Such a pretty face . . ." she whispered. "Hope you don't mind . . ." Emily took out one of her knives and pressed the blade to Pearl's face. "But I want to see what you look like without it . . ." she laughed.

*****

Alto started to regain consciousness. He heard screaming from the other room then heard something hit the ground with a disgusting sloshy sound.

**BOOM!**

No . . . there was two of them left . . . He heard footsteps come his way. She stopped in front of him and lightly pushed his face to the side with her boot. Maybe she would believe he was still unconscious.

"Dammit . . ." she hissed. "It's no fun when they're asleep . . ." she pouted and walked away. Alto cracked an eye open and saw the red head girl holding two bloody knives that dripped off the tip and left a trail behind her.

Once she was gone, Alto got up and went into the room and found Pearl's corpse pinned to the wall. Her face skinned off, her neck slit open, her intestines on the floor, and a message carved on her stomach.

**_YOU'RE NEXT ALTO!_**


	25. Chapter 25: The Last Fight!

Two of them left . . . two of them left . . . It was just him . . . and Emily . . . He never imagined she would be the last one our of twenty-four of them.

Alto kept on walking, his eyes searched for Emily. He had to breathe as calmly as possible so he would hear her. Any sort of sound . . . he already learned the hard way that her breathing was silent. He had to rely on the sound of her boots to find her or avoid her.

Alto held his sword that he had to pry out of Pearl's leg as his eyes searched the halls. He was practically expecting her to jump out of the walls and slit his throat open. What the hell happened to her? From what he was aware of, he and his fallen companions had killed most of the tributes.

She appeared weak and feeble, someone who would never harm a fly. And then . . . suddenly . . . she mercilessly killed her victims. Beheaded her first, burned her second and third, and ripped open and skinned her fourth. Was her innocent and harmless personality all an act? Was she really a hard-core murderer underneath to fool everyone?

"Heeheeheeheehee . . ." her giggle echoed in the hall.

Alto turned around quickly and raised his sword up, no crazy Emily.

"_One, two, Emmy's coming for you . . . Three, four, better lock your door . . . Five, six, get a crucifix . . . Seven, eight, better stay up late . . . Nine, ten, never sleep again!_" Emily sang with a scratching sound coming from around the corner. Alto slowly turned around and saw Emily with a sword in her hand scratching against the wall. "It's just you . . . and me now . . ." she chimed with a wicked smile.

Alto took in a deep breath as he kept his eyes to the swaying tribute before him. The way she was standing . . . the way she swayed like that . . . how dead her eyes looked and yet remotely looked happy to see him in a hungry vengeful way . . . she didn't appear that way when he saw her during training. All wide-eyed and scared of the fact she was in the Games . . . she was acting too calm since he killed her boyfriend . . .

"Just hold still . . ." Emily whispered seductively, licked her lips, and dragged her sword behind her as she approached him slowly and then broke out into a run.

"Lee . . . Label . . . Lance . . . Liam . . . Oh!" Alto snapped his fingers thinking of the guy's name. That guy from Nine. "So how's your boyfriend, Liam right?"

Emily blinked and dropped her sword and froze in the spot. She shook her head and looked around, looking confused and lost. "Where am I . . . how did I get—Liam?" she whispered his name and looked to Alto.

Alto looked to Emily's eyes, a sign of life and innocent glowed in them once more. The murderer's smile was gone and was replaced by the very expression he recalled seeing in the training room. "You don't remember anything . . . do you?"

Remember what? Last thing she remembered . . . Liam . . . right . . . he was dead. She told him she loved him and he died in her arms. After that . . . she couldn't remember anything.

She backed away and in response Alto took a step forward. So the innocent one snapped out of her trance and back to her harmless ways. "You know four days have passed since your boyfriend died . . ." Alto said and picked up the sword.

"Four days . . .?" she repeated. How was that possible? "Where are your allies?" she asked quietly, her eyes searched around her for the others.

"Dead . . . you killed them . . ."

Emily stopped and looked at him. "Me . . .?" Wait . . . all of them were dead? Did that mean there was only two of them left?

He nodded. "Want to know how? By demonstrating on you?" Her eyes widened and ran away down the hall. "NOT SO HIGH AND MIGHTY WHEN YOU'RE SANE! HUH!?" he called out to her and chased after her.

Emily ran up the railing up the floors. Alto followed closely behind her. Alto caught up with her and caught her leg and tripped her. He fell on top of her and pinned her to the ground. She screamed in protest and tried to struggle out of his grip, but he had her to the ground.

Alto pulled out his knife and smiled down at her. The scared look in her eye made him want to kill her slowly. "Should I do to you what you did to your recent victim?" Emily shook her head and fought back tears in fear. Her last moment . . . she was going to die then and there . . . "No? Not so funny when you're the one about to be killed, huh?"

Emily glared at him, pushed her lower half up, wrapped her legs around his neck, and pulled him back which resulted in his skull meeting the floor. Emily scoot back and got back on her feet while Alto groaned in pain and ran away again.

"YOU CAN'T RUN NOW!" he yelled.

Emily gasped for air as she kept running. She did not dare look back, he could hear him just behind her. She ran up the stairs and went through a door, bright light blinded her and found herself on the roof.

"Shit . . . shit . . ." Emily cursed in a panicked tone as she looked around. No rope . . . nothing to jump down with . . . she was done for. She checked herself for any weapon but only found a needle and some wire. How were those things going to be of use!?

The escape door slammed open and Emily gasped and hurled herself around to find Alto. Emily backed away, her eyes searched for a way out but found no way to escape. He was blocking the door and jumping off the building was suicide . . . either way she was going to die.

Her heart ached with fear . . . and over the fact that Liam wasn't there to guide her.

"I need you Liam . . ." she whispered under her breath. "Help me . . ." A few tears escaped from the corner of her eyes, amusing Alto at the fact that she was actually crying with fear. Emily turned around and prayed for luck for when she would jump off the edge, but Alto grabbed her hair and pulled her back. Emily screamed and grabbed his wrists and tried to pull them off.

"I win . . ." Alto smiled.

"_Win Emily . . .,_" Liam's voice echoed in her head. She huffed and swiped Alto's feet and tripped him. She rolled on top of him, took his knife and raised it up for enough momentum to stab him, but he stopped her, pushed her off and pinned her again. His hand slipped from his grip on one of her wrists and she pushed a needle into his neck.

And just like that, he froze. Emily pushed him off and sighed with relief. "You were saying . . .?" she asked with bitterness. She got up on her feet, took the wire and tied it around a metal post and tied a noose with the other end. She dragged Alto's frozen body closer to the edge and put the wire noose around his neck. She sat him down at the edge and sighed. "This is for Liam . . ." she growled and kicked him off the edge.

Hid body fell down and once the wire completely straightened, the wire cut through his flesh and beheaded him. His body and head fell all the way down to the first floor.

**BOOM!**

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Our 68th Hunger Games victor! Emily Horwitz of District 8!"


	26. Chapter 26: Why

Emily's wounds have healed and her scars from the Games and from her District 8 lifestyle disappeared when the Capitol brought her back from the arena. They had her strapped to the bed for a long time because during her nightmares . . . she clawed at her arms and face, creating more wounds that the Capitol had to heal.

She had images flashed at her in her nightmares . . . so much blood, tortured faces, and the terrifying feeling that she wasn't satisfied. Those images made no sense . . . what did make sense and what frightened her the most was the very memory of Liam dying in her arms. She hoped it was a bad dream, she hoped Liam was really alive, maybe it would change. Maybe if she thought hard enough the scene would change and Liam lived and won the Games.

But every time she woke up . . . she was constantly reminded that she was the one that got out of the arena alive. Liam died . . . and by some cruel miracle she was still alive. Unhappy . . . scared of herself . . . and always cried her eyes out before she went back to sleep during her healing process.

" . . . when you did those thing . . .?"

Emily blinked and looked around. People stared at her, lights and cameras pointed at her, and Caesar stared at her for an answer. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Had your mind somewhere else?" Caesar asked.

Emily nodded to him. "Yes, my mind was somewhere else, sorry," she apologized.

"That's okay, dear. You must be a little tired. I was asking, what were you thinking during those times when you did those things? To the other tributes," Caesar reminded.

"Oh . . . um . . . well, to be honest, I really don't remember much. The last thing I remember was when Liam . . ." he voice trailed when her heart ached. Just mentioning his name hurt her. He was dead and gone . . .

"When your ally said his last words to you . . ." Caesar nodded.

She nodded in agreement. "Yes . . . That was the last thing I remembered before I—I came to when it was just me and the last tribute . . ." she answered.

"Well then, that's a good time to show the recaps of your Games then," he said and signaled for the lights to dim a little and project her Games for everyone to see.

Emily watched the screen, the cameras were constantly on her and Liam. The theme of this year's Games, so it seemed, a blooming relationship. A strong friendship with tension in the air that came from Liam towards Emily, and soon turned into a loving relationship with no happy ending. After Liam's death scene, Emily paid good attention to what happened afterward.

Her movement and how she stood was different. She crawled up the walls from the fire escape and waited on top of the Cornucopia for a whole day. She was always rocking back and forth and mumbling something to herself. By the time her first victim came around, she saw how she paralyzed the girl from Four and beheaded her with the girl's axe. Waited for the other two tributes and burned them alive. And the most horrifying scene when she laughed like a lunatic with the girl she pinned to the wall. Emily looked away by the time she started to skin the girl's face and held in her tears.

She DID all of that!? Her!? No . . . no it couldn't be . . . Emily looked back to when she came to and became herself again. Emily collected herself during that time just when the lights brightened up and cameras were on her again.

"So . . .?"

"Well . . . I can say, I don't remember doing any of that stuff . . ." she answered honestly. It did explain the nightmares she had though. "Sorry, that's all I can say. I don't know what I was thinking during that time . . ." she looked away towards the audience she could hardly see due to the lights blinding her.

"And what about you ally . . . he told you his plan for you, do you think he would be happy that you won?" Caesar asked.

Emily looked back at him and nodded. "Yes . . . yes, I think Liam would be happy that I won . . ."

*****

She was more than happy to leave the Capitol. She wore her crown that President Snow put on her head and left for the trains immediately. She wanted nothing else but to be alone.

Time sped by . . . and Emily found herself in her house in Victors' Village. She slowly moved throughout the house, but didn't pay any attention to the detail of it. She stood in the middle of her room and stared blankly at the walls.

Why did she win . . .?

There was nothing for her to gain . . .?

She felt herself crumble and fall onto her knees in tears. She sobbed her eyes out and cried at everything that was tormenting her in her mind. How she was chosen for the Games, Liam a part of the Games and forced into it together, his death, her torturing and murdered the Careers, and the fact that she was alive and won the Games.

She was so scared . . . scared of herself. She really did do all those things to the tributes . . .

She stared at her hands . . . the very hands that held those weapons and was the cause of people's deaths. She tried to wash her hands clean, clean them from her victim's blood. There was nothing that stained her hands, but she felt their blood, she could hear their screams, see their fear, and she could even taste Liam's blood in her mouth.

Why . . . why did she have to win . . .?


	27. Chapter 27: Torment

Emily didn't eat a thing since she got back from the Capitol . . . she didn't want to eat or drink anything . . . she just wanted to die . . .

After three days, she heard a knock on the door. She groaned and rolled off her couch before she made way to the door. _Just leave me alone . . ._, she thought to herself before she opened the door to see her mentor, Phox. "What?"

"Well hello to you too darling," he eyed her and threw her a loaf of bread. "Got you something to eat—"

"Not hungry . . ." she interrupted and threw it back at him.

"Don't be difficult," Phox said and shoved it into her arms, "You haven't been out in three days . . ." He stopped and looked into her kitchen. "And by the looks of it you haven't been eating either."

"I'm fine, Phox . . ." she said in her annoyed tone. "Now go away . . ."

"Don't sass me . . ." Phox said. "I'm here to talk to you."

"Okay . . ." she sighed and sat down at the table. Hurry up . . .

"Em . . . I know it's a hard time for you. Victors go through this soon after winning their Games. And there always has to be someone there to make sure it doesn't get worse." Emily blink and nodded for him to continue. "Usually . . . victors find ways of escaping what they saw and did. They go a few ways. Most go towards alcohol and drugs. And some even try for suicide . . . by how you're behaving with pushing me away and not going outside to see anyone you knew, I'm assuming you're trying to go with path number three . . ."

Emily looked away and picked the stuff under her nails. "There's a possibility . . ." she mumbled.

"Most of the time no one is there for that new victor to avoid destroying themselves. There are some cases where the most vulnerable are the ones that torment themselves the fastest. Considering that you're emotionally and mentally unstable, I'm here to make sure you don't do anything to yourself . . ."

"Phox . . . I appreciate you're worried about me . . ." Emily started and blankly stared at the table. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair and pulled a little by her roots. "I just . . . don't understand why I'm still alive . . ."

Emily felt a hand on hers, which made her release her grip of her hair and looked to Phox. They didn't say anything, there was nothing to be said that could fix her emotions. Yes, she was alive, but with a cost. But with what she was feeling . . . she would rather be dead than alive.

"Eat something Em . . ." Phox said and got up. Emily sighed and stayed in her seat even after Phox left. Her heart felt like it was being crushed. It was hard to breathe, it was hard to think, there was only pain . . .

Emily sobbed quietly and curled in a ball. Her body shook and burned like fire. She half expected him to touch her and cradle her in his arms . . . but that only made the pain worsen . . . he didn't exist anymore. Even though he once lived in another district, at least the thought that he was alive would have made her feel better. But no . . . it was the fact that he wasn't there with his brothers anymore . . .

He was gone . . . truly gone . . . his presence in the mortal world was no longer there . . .

"I'm sorry Liam . . ." she choked. "I'm so sorry . . ." Emily cried.


	28. Chapter 28: Victors' Tour!

Emily was cutting her nails when she heard the bell ring. _Let me guess . . ._, she thought as she got up and went to the front door. "What's the word, hummingbird?" she raised a brow.

"You're running out of ways of saying "hi"," Phox said and let himself in.

"You would too if you have a visitor each day to check up on you," she replied and shut the door.

Phox looked around the rooms and saw how clean the rooms looked as well as noticed that the curtains were open. "Finally decided to move on from your cave days?" For two months Emily had the curtains closed and turned the house into a wreck as she drowned in her sorrows. Seeing the place clean and with light was a good sign.

"I got bored and decided to clean the place. The smell finally got to me," she shrugged and heard the oven ding. "Brownies?"

"And you're eating too."

"I am. Not much, but I'm still trying to get by," she replied and took the brownies out and placed it on the counter to cool.

"So . . . you're doing better today . . ."

She shrugged and pat his shoulder. "I think it was just about time . . ."

"You still won't smile though . . ."

She blinked and ran her fingers through her red hair. "Haven't exactly moved on fully . . ." she sighed.

"Take your time . . . eventually you'll have to put a fake one on for the Victor's Tour."

"Can I take a rain check?" she raised a brow.

"Trust me, if there was, I would have skipped mine as well," he rolled his eyes.

"Dammit . . ." she lightly growled. "Do I REALLY have to?"

"Yes . . . you REALLY have to. Think it's a waste of time since you're forced to see every family member that died, including the ones that you killed . . ."

"I don't think those families are going to like me very much . . ." she said nervously.

"No . . . no they're not. I'd be amazed if they didn't try to wring your neck," Phox said and poked.

She sighed and nodded. "I would be too . . ."

*****

Thorburn and Winnow went crazy on planning out her outfit and parties for all the districts they were to visit. Emily's heart was heavy when she heard they had to go to District 7 and back to District 8 at the end of the Tour . . . Liam's district was the last one she would have to visit . . .

What a way to end a tour for her . . .

The families from Four, Two, and One were NOT happy to see Emily. Especially the girl's family from Two, the one who's face she skinned. They were horrified to see her, in fact they were scared of her. Alto's family tried to have a go at her but she was pulled back before they could try to kill her.

The parties were boring . . . and Emily had to put on a fake smile the whole time. Yet no one but Phox noticed . . .

Emily watched the fields fly by her as they slowly approached District 9. Her heart raced and she felt sick. She was going to see Liam's brothers . . . would they be happy to see her? Would they be angry that she let him die?

Time felt like it skipped and paused a couple times. It went by fast as she made way to the Justice Hall and would slow down a little when she saw Liam's older brother, Constantine and the youngest brother, Scottie. Constantine was twenty while Scottie was a year older than Emily, about seventeen. Emily kept her eyes away from the Aldair brothers. Every time she looked in their general direction, she only saw some features that they shared Liam and every time stood still until she looked away.

As she held her tears, she thanked Althea's family for raising such a nice and strong girl. Her heart sank when she had to look to Constantine and Scottie. Liam looked a lot more like his older brother, Constantine. She saw Liam's face and his wild hair, but grey eyes. Liam's younger brother had his blue eyes that reminded her of every time that he stared at her.

She tried to keep it together, the cameras were on her and she was afraid of making a wrong move that would result in Liam's brothers being punished for a mistake Emily made.

Emily nodded to Constantine but couldn't find words to say to them. She wanted to apologize to them for letting their brother die and thank them for so many things that Liam and his family did for her when they lived in Eight. But what was stopping her was that she was close to crying just by looking at them.

"Keep it together . . . don't cry . . ." Constantine mouthed to her. Emily sighed and nodded to him.

Time skipped again and Emily was forced into another gown for the next party. She slipped away from the crowd after saying hello to so-and-so and whats-their-face. She dodged some cameras and made as little noise as possible so microphones won't hear her heels click.

She went outside into the fields and walked through the meadow slowly. Emily looked around her and searched for something that reminded her of Liam. Even though he said that Eight was originally his home, Nine was where he had lived before he was forced into the Games.

"Emily . . ."

She gasped and turned around and saw him. She shook her head and rubbed the corner of her eyes and looked back at the figure again. It was Constantine . . . she actually thought she saw Liam . . .

"Hey Constantine . . ." she sighed.

Constantine walked a little closer and pat her head. "How are you doing kid?"

"Not so good . . ."

"Not surprised . . ." he sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Won't you get in trouble for slipping away from the party?"

"Yeah . . . I'd rather not deal with it. I've already gone to ten other parties. Missing one won't be the end of the world," she rolled her eyes. She looked at Constantine and saw only Liam staring back at her.

"It's the Capitol Em . . ."

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "They already took your brother away . . ." she mumbled. "My mentor will most likely come up with some lie like I don't feel good or something . . ."

"As long as you'll be okay . . ." he said.

Emily took in deep breaths and pulled her hair back, wanting to rip them from the roots and exhaled slowly. Her body was trembling due to nervousness. "Aren't you angry? I mean . . . your little brother died . . . I couldn't save him . . . I—"

"Em—Em! Calm down!" Constantine started and grabbed her shoulders to stop her trembling. "There was nothing you could do . . . there is NOTHING . . . you could change for him to come out of the arena alive. I know Liam . . ." he said to her. "Nothing you would have done differently would have changed his mind. When it comes to you, his mind is made . . ."

Emily sighed and shook her head. "It's just not fair . . ." she whispered.

"I know . . ." he mumbled. He dug into his pocket and took something out before he handed it to her. "I think you gave this to him when you left. As a way for him to remember you. I think he'd want you to have it back since he originally got it for you . . ."

Emily looked into her hand and saw the silver butterfly brooch. She felt like something was crushing her chest when she laid eyes upon it. Liam had bought her the brooch as a present when she turned twelve since he had been saving his pay to get her something. When he and his brothers were about to be transferred she returned the brooch to him as a way to remember her.

She couldn't believe he kept it all that time . . .

Tears escaped her eyes and Constantine hugged her. Emily hugged him back and buried her face to his chest. "It's okay now . . ." he said in her hair. It's okay to cry now . . .

Liam's household had always welcomed Emily as a part of the family as well. There were times before she ran away from her parents' home that she would spend the night with the Aldairs. She was the little sister of the group. Because she was so close to Liam, they wanted to take care of her too.

Emily quietly cried into her "big brother's" chest and kept apologizing for Liam's death. "It's okay . . . it's okay . . ." he kept saying every time she apologized. It was her fault that he was dead . . . if she wasn't in the Games he would have lived.

"I'm sorry . . ." she whispered.

"It's okay . . ." Constantine said. She could tell he was trying to keep it together for her. Emily would have felt so much worse if he cried too. He had to hold it in and let her emotions go.

"Don't destroy yourself . . ."

"I won't . . ." she choked.

"He died for you to live . . ."

"I know . . ."

"Take care of yourself kid," he sighed and brushed her hair out of her face. Emily nodded and he kissed her forehead. "Don't let his death be in vain . . ." he whispered and wiped her tears away. "Pull yourself together kid . . . you have your stupid party to go to."

She lightly laughed . . . the first time she had laughed in months and nodded. "Okay . . . thanks Constantine . . ." She pinned the butterfly brooch to her dress and weakly smiled at him with sad eyes.

He caressed her cheek and brushed a stray hair away from her forehead. "We love you kid . . ." he said to her. For himself, for Scottie, and of course for Liam.

She nodded to him and walked away towards the Justice Hall for the remainder of the party.


	29. Chapter 29: New!

After the tour ended, Emily had been going out more to move on from her depressed manner. She had a hard time trying to smile for real. There wasn't anything in District 8 that could make her smile like she used to.

There was no way she could return to the way she was. In past Games, she had seen so many people die on screen . . . yet actually experiencing it in real life was a completely different. Being in the arena . . . wielding a weapon . . . the fear that someone may be behind you with a knife to slit your throat open . . . killing people with your own hands . . .

Only the victors understood the difference between death on screen and death in front of you . . .

She had walked by some old classmates of her that didn't believe she was going to win and Emily never looked them in the eye. Whatever day that was, she suppose it was some bipolar weather day when she was wearing a top that revealed her angel wing tattoo on her back. When her classmates saw it, they nicknamed her the "Angel of Death." When she heard that she turned to look at them and they bolted, as if they assumed she was going to murder them then and there.

It was a good reaction. She ONLY tortured and murdered the Careers in inhumane ways. If they weren't scared of her, they would be insane. Only the people that really knew her weren't scared of her. Like the people she bought food from before she was reaped as well as her closest coworkers.

Cece and Harmony weren't scared of her either. Their sisters on the other hand were a little skeptical on which emotion to project.

The next Games were approaching . . . In a month, two tributes would be chosen and she would have to mentor them. How could the Capitol do that to the victors? Especially the ones that came fresh out of the arena?

Emily wasn't the only female victor in Eight. There was also Cecelia. She was busy last year with her kids, so she had to sit out on her mentoring duties and left it to Phox. Woof also took a break and felt that Phox would best fit to be Emily's mentor.

Cecelia's kids were so young and needed their mother, so Emily was up to mentor the 69th Hunger Games. It was Cecelia's birthday round the spring time and Phox brought Emily along to introduce herself to the other victors of Eight. She met Woof and Cecelia there, as well as the second youngest victor of their district, Abir Bernon. A good-looking tribute that had won two years before Emily's victory. So he won a year before Abraham Rose of District 7 won.

During the small victor party at Cecelia's home, Emily helped her take care of her children when they were being fussy. The kids didn't trust her at first since she wasn't their mama or their daddy, but in the end they enjoyed her company.

Emily was . . . jealous of Cecelia. In the beginning . . . she planned on having a family after she surpassed the age limit to be reaped. That way their chances of being chosen were slimmer . . . but now . . .

As a victor . . . she couldn't bring herself to imagine having children anymore. She would never bring her children in the world just so they could be chosen for the Games. Emily would never risk their safety . . .

And yet Cecelia had three of them and they all had high chances of being in the Games. How would she handle it if they died? Was she planning to train them in secrecy?

A thought stuck to Emily's head the whole time . . . because of her social standing . . . she would never have children . . . she always wanted to be a mother . . . and the Capitol took that away from her too . . .

"So what's your method of teaching the upcoming tributes?" Abir asked.

Emily shrugged as they walked home to their homes. "I'm not sure exactly . . . probably . . . be honest but try to keep it upbeat?" she answered. Emily stared at Abir since she never got a good look at him before. She knew he was about three years older than her. Emily should turn seventeen on the day of the reaping, so Abir would be around twenty.

They were walking back to Victors' Village after going to the store. Emily had to purchase cat food for her cat, Chenille that she picked up from Cece and Harmony when she saw them again. Chenille was a black and white munchkin cat that she had found on the streets when she ran away from her family and was homeless for a couple months. Since Abir and Emily were going to be mentors that year, she asked Phox to take care of Chenille while she was away at the Capitol.

"Typical . . ."

"We're suppose to tell the kids how to survive. Of course it's typical to be honest . . ."

"As for upbeat . . . you're not exactly the most upbeat person just yet," he said.

"Can't blame me . . . I did just win last year. Didn't it take you a while to get over your Games as well? Think only the insane don't get flashback nightmares of their Games . . ."

He laughed and nodded. "Touché! Okay, I'll be around to help this year since you're the newest."

"So you'll give me some tips?"

"Here and there," he nodded towards one of the houses. "This is my stop."

"Okay, see you tomorrow at the Reaping . . ." she nodded.

"Night."

*****

Emily walked to the Justice Hall in a green sundress and heels. The mentors always had to look presentable for the Reaping and had to look casual, yet fancy enough for the cameras and give off a welcoming atmosphere to the scared tributes that were to be chosen that day.

Her eyes looked up to the Justice Hall and her mind flashed to last year when she was walking with her classmates and coworkers to the Reaping. Just like every year . . . fear lingered in the atmosphere of the dreaded day.

The children between the ages of twelve and eighteen haven't gathered yet, but the emotion around the district was being projected from their homes.

Emily went inside the building and waited with the mayor, Thorburn, and Abir in one of the rooms. She watched the kids gather in front of the Justice Hall and stand in their age group that was split between girls and boys. She felt nervous for them. Or maybe she was just remembering her time too . . .

The Reaping went on forever. Maybe it was the heat . . . maybe it was the eyes that stared at their new district victor . . . maybe it was because Emily didn't want to be there . . . but the Reaping felt as if it was the longest ceremony in history.

A twelve year old girl was chosen, as well as a boy who was once Emily's classmate was chosen for that year's Hunger Games.

Emily and Abir immediately went to the train while the newest tributes said their goodbyes to their family and friends. It was the escort's job, Thorburn's job to take them to the train and the escorts wait in the train and make themselves comfortable before they talk to their newest tributes.

"Don't get too attached to the tributes . . ." Abir warned.


	30. Chapter 30: Mentoring!

The twelve-year-old girl ran to her room once she got to the train. "Hey!" Emily's classmate called out to the girl.

"Let her be . . ." Emily said when she walked into the room and took a seat on one of the cushioned chairs.

"She should at least be around to hear how she's going to survive!" he exclaimed.

"It's already a rough day for her. Her chances of getting out alive at her age lessens the more tributes older than her is reaped. She's aware of that . . ." she sighed. The boy mumbles something, which makes Emily eye him in reaction. "What did you say . . .?"

"Your weak point has always been to leave people alone for them to like you. Maybe it's because you don't even know what the hell you're doing and because of that you're going to let us die like your ally did in the Games—"

Suddenly he was struck hard across the face that threw him off his chair and knocked the wind out of him.

"Jesus, Emily!" Abir cried from across the room.

The boy looked up at Emily and realized all that strength had REALLY come from Emily.

"Okay Em . . . I think you should go vent somewhere else . . ." Abir said and lightly touched her shoulders. Emily shoved him off and stormed out of the room. "That wasn't smart for you to say to her . . ." he sighed to the boy.

He huffed and collected himself. He lightly touched his cheek that pulsed and burned like fire.

Emily slammed her door shut and mumbled incoherently under her breath and paced around her room. "Don't cry . . . don't cry . . ." she mumbled to herself. That guy just pissed her off . . . how DARE he brought . . . him . . . into the subject. She already knew it was her fault he died . . . she told herself everyday for a year . . .

It was her fault . . .

It was her fault . . .

He was dead because of her . . .

She took in deep breaths when she felt that tears were close to escaping. She pulled her hair back from her roots to distract herself from her emotional pain. All her attention went to the physical pain and soon her tears disappeared.

"Don't cry . . ." she said one last time to herself.

"_Pull yourself together . . ._," Constantine's voice echoed in her head.

Emily sighed when she heard a knock on the door. "Come in . . ."

The door slid open and at the door was Abir. "You left a really dark bruise on our tribute."

"He had it coming . . ." she said unemotionally.

"Was that your idea of upbeat?"

She shook her head in response. "I got . . . mad at him." She looked away from Abir and ran her fingers through her hair.

"I heard what he said . . . I know you're new at this. It's okay to hit your tributes when they're out of line. I'm letting that one slide since he should have known better than to say that to you when you're still trying to get over it . . ." he said.

Emily nodded. "Right . . . sorry. I'll keep it together when we're suppose to dine in a few hours."

"Are you going to get the girl?"

"I'll try . . ." she mumbled. The girl was reacting the same way Emily reacted when she was reaped. She had holed up in her room and only came outside when she needed to eat and never spoke to anyone. She needed time . . . but she also had to come out and listen to the plans for her to get sponsors.

"There's a car that the mentors go to hang out. Tributes aren't allowed to go into the other district cars since they would most likely pick fights with each other. We all go there when the kids have gone to sleep," Abir said.

"Thanks Abir . . ."

*****

As expected, the girl came out of her room, but she didn't say a word to anyone. Abir did the talking to the boy, who Emily finally remembered was named Vulture. A vulgar name. Vulture didn't want to talk to Emily since he was struck by his mentor, a girl no less.

It was to be expected. Emily remembered him to be a boy with a massive ego and full of pride. If anyone from home found out that Emily was the cause of the bruise, they would either laugh at him or believed that Emily lost it again and tried to make his intestines into a necklace.

Emily kept looking back at the girl that sat in front of her. If she recalled correctly, her name was Velcro. Velcro was playing with her food in front of her, obviously in no mood to eat and wanted nothing more than to be left alone and somewhere else.

Most likely she wanted to be back home with her family in District 8 . . .

Velcro reminded Emily so much of herself . . . it almost hurt to look at her and think of those days again . . .

The tributes went to their rooms before Abir sighed and put his napkin over his plate that he wiped clean. "Wasn't he a treat . . .?" he groaned.

"Try going to school with him. He was a massive pain in the rear . . ." Emily rolled her eyes.

"Classmate of yours?"

She nodded. "He was the biggest prick in my year . . ." she said unemotionally. "Between you and me . . . I don't expect him to win . . ."

"It's okay. A majority of us bet on which of our kids would die first," Abir revealed.

"Really?"

He shrugged. "After doing this a couple years and as you get closer to the other victors, our morbid sense of humors need to come out and kind of let out our bets here and there," Abir said as he stood up and stretched a little. "I'm going to hang out with the other victors now. Want to join me?"

"Hmmm . . . I guess. I got nothing better to do anyway," she shrugged and stood up too before the walked towards the victor car.


	31. Chapter 31: The Victors!

Emily was a little overwhelmed to meet most, if not all, of the mentors in the victors' car. It was a hang out spot for all of them, it kept a bar, a buffet table, and dining tables for twenty-four of them to dine at. Emily wondered if Phox was in that room while she locked herself in her room most of the train ride to the Capitol.

She caught most of their names since there was a lot of them and hard to remember each and every one of their names. Most of them she remembered seeing when they won their Games. She remembered: Dakota Tymora of District 12, Trace Brun of District 4, Abraham who she met last year from District 7, and Treshaun Cronaw from District 10. The others that didn't show up were in their rooms.

They all teased her since she was the newest of them, but welcomed her just the same.

Treshaun was the most social of the victors that talked to her more. She remembered Trace Brun faked his death in his desert Games back when Emily was eight and had a daughter a few months after he came back from the arena. If Emily remembered correctly, Trace's daughter should be eight or nine by then. She didn't remember how Trey won and was trying to remember how Dakota won. All she remembered was that Dakota was fourteen when he won his Games.

She looked back at all of them and they were all so young. Dakota must have been no older than nineteen, Trey was around his early twenties, Emily remembered Abraham to be a year younger than her, so he must have been sixteen? Trace was the oldest victor in the car and he was in his mid-twenties.

The atmosphere in the car was rather light and energetic. She expected them to be serious and quiet. And there she was, laughing at Trey's jokes while Abraham was getting himself drunk in the bar and bursting out into song once in a while.

After a couple hours, Emily said, "I'm going to turn in for the night."

"Hey, could you bring Abe with you? He's closest to your district car and he really shouldn't be left alone. Sycamore is most likely in her room, she'll take care of him after you drop him off," Trey said.

Emily looked over at Abe, who was passed out on the couch with a bottle of scotch in his hand. "Um . . . sure, I suppose . . ." she shrugged and walked over to him. "Hey . . . Abraham . . . time to get up . . ." she said and lightly shook his shoulder.

He groaned and brushed her off.

Emily rolled her eyes and picked him up. "I say "up"!" she growled and heaved him over her shoulder.

"You might have to get used to this, kid. Abe is the drunkard of this bunch. We usually take turns taking care of him ever since he won his Games," Trey warned her. "Prepare to do this for the rest of your career."

"Joy . . .," she rolled her eyes and started moving.

"I'll help you out," Abir said and put Abe's other arm that was holding the scotch over his shoulder. "I'm going to bed now anyway, might as well help you out."

"I'm guessing his Games resulted him into becoming an alcoholic?" Emily asked and nodded to Abraham.

"Naw an alcaholek . . ." Abraham slurred.

"You're an alcoholic, boy . . ." Abir rolled his eyes. "Yeah. The Games effects people differently. Some go into alcohol, some go into drugs, some turn out okay, some suicidal, insane, or just go on being unhappy and depressed. Here's your example of the Games turning someone into an alcoholic . . .," he nodded to the red-headed teenager they were holding onto.

"That's too bad . . .," she said. They reached District 7's car and tossed him into bed.

"I'll go get Sycamore and tell her that Abe is back in bed. You can go," Abir nodded.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. By the way, you looked better when you socialized with all of us," he pointed out when she started to leave.

"How so?"

"Well . . . Phox was telling us back at home that you haven't smiled once since the arena. At least for real . . . Trey's lame jokes was the first time you actually let out a good laugh and smile," he said.

Emily blinked and shook her head. "Goodnight Abir . . ." she mumbled and nodded to him before she walked away. Yeah . . . she felt better being around the victors and absorbed their happy personality. Didn't mean she was okay though . . .


	32. Chapter 32: Morning!

Emily gasped and woke up. She felt hot tears run down her face and immediately wiped them away. "_No . . . no, that's no good . . .,_" she thought to herself and jumped out of bed. It was still dark outside, but she was too afraid to go back to sleep. She slipped into something comfortable and started doing push-ups to distract herself.

Ever since the tour, she had gone into full-time boot camp mode in the mornings. She would first do upper body exercises before she moved onto sit-ups and then went out for a run before the sun rose. That time she couldn't go out running.

Such a shame . . . she always felt satisfied with her work-out after a run . . .

Emily had reached up to seventy-five when her arms felt like it was burning badly and stopped. Two hundred sit ups later and her stomach roared to life.

Emily went out of her room and into the victors' car before she did a handstand and had her feet lightly touch the wall. She kept taking long deep breaths as she felt blood rush to her head. She usually did this when she was bored and would time how long she had been in the position. It was also another exercise for her arms to build more muscle.

She closed her eyes and listened to her calm breath when she heard the doors slide open. Emily opened her eyes again and saw Trace Brun come in.

"Morning," Trace nodded.

"Morning . . ." Emily said. "You're up rather early."

"So are you," he said as he started to make a pot of coffee. "Want some too?"

"Pretty soon, yes," she groaned and felt her arms shake. One Mississippi . . . two Mississippi . . . three Mississippi . . . four—OKAY DONE! She got back on her feet and rubbed her arms with a sigh.

"You're not going back into the Games, you don't need to get in shape," he said with sleepy amusement.

"I know . . . I just . . ." her voice trailed and thought of why she suddenly started to discipline herself. She just suddenly felt like working out after the Games. She shrugged and looked at Trace, "I don't know. I just feel like strengthening my body," she said and sat down.

"Been crying lately?"

"No . . ." she answered immediately. She shouldn't cry anymore . . . she had to keep it together. She's not . . . the same girl that cried everyday. Emily had to keep her emotions in tact and not show any fear or worry in front of her tributes that she had to help to survive. "I had some dry sleep in my eyes when I woke up."

"Okay . . ." Trace poured two cups and handed one over to Emily. "Here."

"Thank you . . ."

"Your "hard-as-stone" attitude won't last much longer," he said as he poured some cream in his coffee.

"Excuse me . . .?"

"The personality you're going with is the most common reaction. Dakota went through it . . . actually I think he's still going through it, but he has lightened up a little more. Overall, it's the kind of personality a majority of us have gone through. Either you'll midway reconstruct your way to your original personality or you completely make a different one with time. Overall, with what we all saw last year, this isn't who you are . . ." Trace said and took a sip of his coffee.

Emily blinked and looked down to her cup of black coffee. She wasn't too sure about that . . . well, maybe. She wasn't exactly fifty percent over her Games and the way she was before was rather hard to believe she was like that.

"_You'll be okay, Lamb . . .,_" his voice echoed in her head.

Emily shook her head and stood up. "I'll keep that in mind . . ." she nodded. "Thanks . . ." She left the car and made way to her district car as she took a sip of her coffee. The sun was slowly rising and the sky was slowly turning into a light blue shade. Everything felt fuzzy and all wrong . . . it really did feel like morning.

She walked into the District 8 dining room and took a seat on one of the couches and laid her head back. It was far too early and she was far too stressed to be there for some job she didn't want. Emily finished her coffee and put it on the coffee table in front of her before she laid down and closed her eyes.

"Hey, Em," a voice called her.

She cracked an eye open and saw Abir. She squeezed her eyes shut for a few seconds before she pushed herself off the couch and rubbed her eyes. The sun had risen a little higher, probably three hours had passed. "Quite a short nap . . ." Emily mumbled.

"You were talking in your sleep a moment ago."

"I've been told I have that habit," she said casually and yawned.

Abir looked back toward the door before he looked back at Emily. "You were screaming in your sleep too . . ."

Emily didn't answer and stood up to the dining table. She didn't want to remember her nightmare and she didn't care to talk about it either. There was a high chance that if she spoke about it, she would break down again just like the old Emily. And she wouldn't allow it.

"Should the kids be up pretty soon?" she asked, just to change the subject.

"Usually. Thorburn should wake them up pretty soon to answer questions that they had in mind as well as discuss what they should do for their interviews and how they should behave for their parade since the sponsors are seeing them for the first time tomorrow," Abir said.

"Can I lie to Vulture and say he should act like himself? That way he won't get any sponsors?" she raised a brow with a dark smile as she took a bite of a tart.

"Now now Em, you know we can't do that," he laughed.

"Oh poo . . .," she pouted. Right on cue, Vulture came in. "Speak of the devil . . ."

"Time to start talking. Velcro will join us afterwards," Abir said and took his seat. "So . . . what do you want to know?" he asked Vulture.

*****

Vulture ignored Emily the entire time, so Emily moved to the couch with Velcro to talk to her. "Hey . . . how are you doing holding up kid?" Emily said with a soothing voice.

Velcro looked up at her for a second before she dropped her eyes and stared at her lap.

"Sweetie . . . I can't be of some help if you don't try talking to me . . ." she said.

She still didn't answer.

Emily ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. "I really do know how you feel right now. I really do . . . you're behaving the same way I did. But you won't come out of this unless you allow me or your other mentor to help you . . ."

The little girl looked up at Emily, her body trembled with fear. She, like most of the district, saw her Games and was aware of what Emily did. "I'm scared . . ." she said.

"I know . . ." Emily nodded. Velcro slowly stood up and sat on Emily's lap and cuddled with her. Emily felt the girl's trembling body and heard her sniff a little here and there. Emily held her softly as the girl cried in her arms. She rocked the girl back in forth and buried her face into Velcro's blonde hair. Velcro buried her face in between Emily's shoulders and silently let her feelings out.

Emily didn't say a thing. There was nothing for her to say that could sooth the girl. There was a very slim chance that she would get out. It wasn't common for a twelve-year-old to come out alive. Velcro knew that . . .

"You have to be strong, kid . . ." Emily whispered. "Don't show any fear towards the Careers . . . they'll eat you alive. Show no fear . . ." Velcro nodded and squeezed Emily into a closer hug. It hurt Emily to have to train someone that young before she had to be thrown into her death. The little girl pulled away and wiped her tears. Emily brushed Velcro's blonde hair out of her face and wiped tears away from the young tribute's face. "Pull yourself together . . ." she said softly.

Constantine's very words . . .

Velcro nodded to Emily. "You can go. I'll help you out around lunch time," she said. Velcro nodded once more and ran off to her room. Emily sighed and stood up before she stretched her arms out.

Vulture was about to go out to when Emily was walking toward him to get something to eat. Vulture huffed at her. "I actually thought you were going to eat her . . ." he smirked.

Emily took the boy's collar and shoved him to the wall before she grabbed a knife and roughly pressed it against his throat. "For Christ sake, Emily—" Abir's voice called.

"YOU THINK YOU HAVE **ANY RIGHT** TO JOKE LIKE THAT!? TO ME!?" she snarled at Vulture. "GUESS WHAT PRICK!? I'M YOUR FUCKING MENTOR!" he exclaimed with utter fury. "Just because you knew the old me all your life doesn't give you the special treatment to treat me the same way as you did before . . ." she glared at him. "I'm the one that's suppose to help you survive . . . and if that doesn't get through your thick skull you're going to die a merciless death by the hands of the Career . . . there are no rules that mentors can't kill their tributes . . . and trust me, you'd rather die by the hands of your fellow tributes than me . . ." she growled and pushed herself off him.

Vulture's eyes were wide with fear. He kept his horrified gaze upon the murderous eyes of Emily for a while before she turned away. She stabbed the tip of the knife to the table and left the car.


	33. Chapter 33: Be Nice!

"_You show no threat whatsoever!_" his voice echoed in her head when she had threatened Vulture.

"How am I doing so far Liam . . .?" Emily mumbled under her breath before her door slid open.

"It's not good to lie to tributes," Abir rolled his eyes.

"You mean when I told him that there's no rule that mentors can kill their tributes?" Emily asked.

"Yes . . . that's what I mean . . ."

"He doesn't know that . . ." she raised a brow. "Maybe he'll think over his attitude . . ." she shrugged and leaned back onto the headboard.

"By shoving a knife at his throat!? Which! By the way, you left a slash mark on his throat after you backed off!" Abir reacted.

"Abir . . . yes, I overreacted a little—"

"A little—!?"

"Let me finish . . ." she interrupted. "I overreacted a little . . . but you should know as well as I do that different people should be trained in different ways. Not everyone is going to react the same way on one method of training. Some people take kindness and compliments, some need to be yelled at and threatened. Since your methods on getting his butt in line isn't working too well, I wanted to experiment again and see how he takes to ruthlessness . . ." she explained.

Abir stared at her and Emily eyed him for a response back. "Still didn't have to go so far as to make him piss his pants—"

"Did he really?" she chuckled.

Abir rolled his eyes, but she saw a small smile formed in the corner of his lips. "Yes, he drizzled a little. He's most likely not going to talk to you again . . ."

"That's okay. I'm going to pay more attention to Velcro anyway," she shrugged. She pushed herself off her headboard and slipped in between the door and Abir. "What else is there to do around here in between meals?" she asked.

"Well some mentors go back into their hobbies in their rooms and some go to the victors' car to hang out. Considering your hobby of choice for the tour was dancing, I don't think you're going to jump into that when the rooms are small," Abir answered and walked down the hall with Emily.

"Okay, victors' car it is then," she shrugged.

They walk into District 7's car when Abraham's door slid open, revealing a very sick looking red headed teenage boy. "Well good morning, hangover," Abir said with a chipper emotion.

Abraham groaned and rubbed his temples.

"Too much to drink as always?"

"Shut up . . ." Abraham growled and dragged his feet in the same direction Emily and Abir were going.

The door ahead of them slid open and Emily saw a very pretty looking girl with dark hair and green eyes. She must have been fifteen or so. She eyed Abraham and huffed before she shoved her shoulder past him.

"What's her deal . . .?" Abraham groaned, a slight tone of annoyance in his voice.

"You . . . kind of called her a "fat-cow" last night," Abir answered. "She came out of her room to get something to drink and I guess you saw her pass by and commented what I said in your . . . drunk personality."

"Shiiiiiiiiiiit . . ."

"Good luck trying to talk to her too. You're suppose to be mentoring her," Abir laughed. He also eyed Emily to do the exact same thing with Vulture.

Got to be nice to the tributes to make them trust you. Who knows if the tribute that annoyed you the most could be the next Hunger Games victor.


	34. Chapter 34: Seven Stages of Grief

Vulture was afraid to look Emily in the eye during lunch. Velcro became a little more talkative and spoke to only Emily since she appeared to be a lot more comfortable around her. They both gave the tributes does and don'ts on how to survive the Hunger Games. Such as: how to find shelter, or make shelter, go downhill to find water, be aware of their surroundings, try listening to the surroundings, don't stay in one spot too long, and anything could be used as a weapon. If they find animal bones, use it as a weapon. Tips such as those.

Abir discussed with Emily during their free time before dinner that Velcro's way of earning her sponsors was through her original personality. Someone sweet and innocent, but because she came off as scared maybe she could come off as curious.

They doubted that underneath her sweet personality was a deadly killer . . . usually the older tributes could use that trick. Not someone that young . . .

"Just have your chin raised up high and smile at the audience around you. Not going to lie, it's going to be a little scary and intimidating . . ." she said and saw Velcro's eyes widen. "Don't worry. These people will love you. That should give you a big confidence booth to feed on their enthusiasm. And because you're so cute, they'll like you more," Emily said to her before she sipped a spoonful of her soup.

"But what if they'll hate me . . .?" Velcro asked timidly.

"Trust me, sweetie. I doubt they wouldn't like you. The Capitol citizens like pretty things. Your stylist will doll you up and the crowd will go wild for you," Emily smiled. She looked over at Abir and Abir nodded to Vulture. She quietly huffed and turned to Vulture. "Now you . . ."

Vulture looked over at her for a second before he dropped his eyes.

"Hey! I'm talking to you . . . Look over here . . ." she ordered sternly.

Vulture hesitated for a moment before his brown eyes met hers. "What?"

"First things first. Your attitude, not going to cut it with the Capitol for your interview. You have a nice face, try going for a somewhat decent personality . . ." she said and dipped her breadstick into her soup.

"And you decided on what kind of personality?"

"Well considering girls back home found you good looking, how about someone who throws in a joke here and there. Actually funny ones, not morbid cruel ones," Emily eyed him. "Sometimes answering honestly with a laugh or a big smile will earn you some points and some laughs."

"Follow everything we say and we guarantee that you'll have higher chances of winning . . ." Abir started.

*****

Emily woke up early again . . . she couldn't get back to sleep and distracted herself again, but that time with meditating in District 8 dining room. She wasn't entirely sure how long she had been sitting in the middle of the room when Abir put a cup of coffee in her hand.

"Thank you," she said and took a sip.

"You need help, Em . . ."

"What did I do this time?" she asked and turned to him with a sleepily look.

"You were screaming in your sleep again . . ."

Emily didn't respond and sipped her coffee. "I had a bad dream . . ."

"Every victor goes through this. Most of us still go through the nightmares. But we all at least admit we have them—"

"Please . . . Abir . . . they're MY issues. I can handle them myself . . ." she interrupted him. She had always been taken care of by others due to her helplessness and she couldn't put anymore burden on the others. They dealt with their sins . . . she should at least do the same.

She couldn't remain helpless forever . . .

"You think we don't notice . . . we all have noticed your cries for comfort. We all understand—"

"No . . . no you don't . . . unlike most of you . . . I actually knew my ally for years. Most of you knew yours' for days or weeks. You all moved on rather quickly. It's taking me a long time because I knew my ally since I was a child . . . let me grieve myself . . ."

The seven stages of grief . . . Shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, depression and loneliness, the upward turn, reconstruction and working through, and acceptance.

Emily lost her mind as a sign of shock and denial, all in order to escape her pain for her loss. Pain and guilt by locking herself in her new home. Bargaining in a sign of suicide back in District 8 . . . and anger that she showed on the train towards Vulture.

Time for the next stage of grief . . .

The nightmares of Liam haunted her . . . she accepted his death and it depressed her to no extent. But she had to hold onto her pain . . . she didn't want to let anyone else in . . .

Abir didn't argue and he knew that Emily would just push him away if he kept trying. They kept their distance from each other until Vulture and Velcro came into the dining room for their breakfast. In a few minutes they would see the Capitol . . .

Emily was half their in their discussion with their tributes and it was obvious she was forcing herself into it. She was far too exhausted emotionally to be a part of anything.

She hated the fact that the Capitol expected victors to work as a mentor so soon. Emily needed time to recover . . . but Cecelia had to take care of her children and it was recommended that two mentors were around for the tributes.

Emily saw the Capitol approach as they went into the tunnel into the train station. A sea of bright colors, just like her first time . . .

They all awaited for the new sacrifices for the new Games . . .


	35. Chapter 35: PreTribute Parade!

Emily was tapping her foot as she sat back at one of the tables and watched the screen that consumed most of the wall. The mentors were making conversation with one another since the only thing on the screen was the high viewpoint of the Avenue of the Tributes. Colorful citizens of the Capitol flowed to their seats to get a good look of the newest tributes with much excitement.

The mentors usually hung back together in the room where the after party was held. From what Treshaun said, usually there would be recaps of the previous Hunger Games that would play around the room during the party. Emily never even noticed that last year. It was all in order to keep the spirits of the Games up for some of the tributes that were excited to be a part of it as well as important people of the Capitol that attended the parties after the Tribute Parade.

Since everything was being prepared for the parade, the recaps weren't be played and the only thing one was the growing excitement for the fresh tributes.

"So we just hang out here until we gather outside to meet the kids?" she asked.

"That's what we always do. The stylists and their crew never enjoy the mentors breathing down their neck while they create their masterpiece as they pretty up the tributes," Treshaun answered. "Might as well have some food and drinks now before the tributes get them all."

Emily looked over at the food tables that carried too many plates to count. The Capitol really wanted to spoil the living hell out of the tributes, didn't they?

"What about food up in the district rooms?" Emily asked.

"You can always have food upstairs too. There's no rule saying that all the tributes HAD to attend. It's a choice," Treshaun shrugged.

"Goodie . . ." she mumbled and left the table to get something to eat. Might as well eat something while there were only the mentors around. Emily took an empty plate and started filling it up with unusual looking entrees as well as food she knew she liked. Just to the middle of the many tables of food was the bar. Might as well get something from there too. There she saw flaming red hair. "Hey Abraham."

"Hey," he nodded to her and took a sip of whatever spirit he was drinking.

"I wanted to—"

"WHY IS YOUR HAIR ON FIRE!?" someone slurred which made Emily turn around and saw one of the mentors already drunk. If she recalled correctly, the girl's name was Marry.

Abraham rolled his eyes and left the bar without a word. "Umm . . . it's not on fire . . ." Emily said slowly.

"But its' all RED!" Marry laughed.

"Em! There you are! Been looking for you!" someone called to her. Emily looked over and saw Dakota walk over to her. "Sorry Marry, have to borrow her for a while. We need to discuss some things."

Dakota started to pull her away from the bar when Emily started, "What things—"

"She gets really weird when she drinks," Dakota warned.

"Thanks for the warning," she said and sat beside Treshaun and Dakota beside her. There were two others there too that were mentors of District 6, but they were holding hands and talking to one another. And Emily believed a woman in her forties and dark brown hair was Sycamore from District 7.

She was surprised she was seeing more of the mentors out and about than when they were all on the train.

"Guess Marry scared off your potential boyfriend?" a voice teased. Emily saw another tribute come around with red highlights and dark eyes. Emily remembered her to be Librae Rollo from District 9 who won by hiding underground until there was only her and the last tribute left in her Games.

"What?"

"The red-head kid that's closest to your age, Abe," she answered.

"WHAT!? No! No no no no no no no!" Emily reacted and shook her head immediately.

"Come on! You two would be cute together!" Librae laughed.

"If anything ever happened!" Treshaun guffawed. "Abe is pretty awkward and kind of a downer when he's sober. He's only lively and friendly when he's drunk!"

Emily didn't say anything and paid attention to her food. No . . . she wasn't looking for anything, nor did she want to look for anything . . . Whether someone said she would look cute with another being, she wouldn't go for it for many reasons. Overall she had no interest in anybody . . .

She tried to remember if what Treshaun said was true. Abraham didn't seem that depressing when she spoke to him up on the roof. Rather helpful. Did he go into drinking after he came back from the arena?

She then heard Caesar Flickman announcing the start of the Tribute Parade. Emily didn't feel like watching the Parade . . . she was too exhausted . . . she then took a large gulp and swallowed down the burning sensation of vodka.


	36. Chapter 36: Next Step

"Em . . ."

No . . .

"Emily . . ."

She would open her eyes . . . she would be back in the arena . . . and Liam would be alive—BETTER YET! The whole thing was a dream! A very long and horrible nightmare! She would wake up in the Aldair home, awoken by Liam with a small breakfast made by Constantine. The Aldairs have not been transferred and Emily never won the Games.

"Em . . ."

Her lashes fluttered a little before she opened her eyes. She stared at the voice that woke her up and found only Librae. Dammit . . .

Emily sat up and rubbed her head. Why did her head hurt? She felt like crap and felt nauseous. "What happened?"

"You drank a few too many and really fast too," she answered. "You became a little drunk, so I put you to bed before you caused any trouble." Emily stared at Librae while she stared back at her. She pointed to her cheeks and said, "You have something on your face . . ."

Emily lightly touched her cheeks and something wet. She looked to her fingertips and saw nothing. She realized what it was and wiped them away as fast as she could and sniffled and followed it with a sigh.

"You don't have to hide the fact you were crying . . .," Librae said.

"I wasn't crying . . .," Emily denied and jumped out of bed.

"Liam was a good kid . . ." Librae called out to Emily. Emily froze in place when his name was mentioned. "I had a good feeling he would win too. And like Althea said to you back in the arena . . . he would not shut up about you . . .," she said. "She and I both knew you were something special to him . . . I already knew you meant a great deal to him when I heard him calling your name in his sleep before we hit the Capitol . . ."

Emily turned around and stared at Librae. She stared back at her with sad eyes.

"I may not know him as well as you did . . . I know for a fact he wouldn't like the way you're behaving."

"I'm just . . . going by what his brother told me . . ." Emily said. "He told me to pull it together . . ." she mumbled.

"And to not destroy yourself . . ." Emily stared at her. "I met his family when we all came back from the Games, so I could apologize for their loss. When he said those things to you, he didn't mean behave like a loner and bottle up your emotions. From what he told me, you've always had the habit of not letting people into your personal business . . . And Liam was the only person you allowed to let into your life . . ."

Emily shook her head and turned away. "I don't want to talk about this . . ."

Librae sighed and watched Emily. "You can't run away from everything you don't like—"

"I'm not running away . . ." Emily muttered and went into the bathroom to go shower. She sighed as she slipped out of her clothes and took a long shower . . . God forbid she needed to clear her head. She was immediately dried off and chose a different outfit she found in one of her drawers and got dressed.

"_It's okay . . ._" a voice said.

Emily ignored it as she did her tie that went with the outfit.

"_It's okay to let go . . ._"

"Please stop . . .," she mumbled. "It's my fault . . . I shouldn't have been reaped . . . you shouldn't have died . . ." she said and turned to Liam. Every once in a while, when she was down she would see Liam before her and talk to him.

"_I DID die though . . . I died for you—_"

"You shouldn't have though . . . I don't understand why it had to be me . . ." she argued.

"_To have a second chance . . ._" he answered.

"At what exactly?"

"_A second chance to live . . . but you can't live your life to the fullest if you don't let go . . ._"

"I can't though . . ." she opposed and held in tears. "You mean so much to me . . ."

Liam stared at her with a sad look in his eyes. "_You're using my death as an excuse to be alone . . . you're tormenting yourself and you've become addicted to that very pain . . ._" he said.

Emily shook her head. "I'm not . . ."

"_Lamb . . . if you really care for me as much as I cared for you . . . you'd move on . . ._"

Tears escaped her eyes and ran down her cheeks as she shook her head. She couldn't . . . he was someone dear to her and he was gone . . . she couldn't imagine moving on and living life without him being on her mind . . .

"I love you, Em . . ."

She quietly sobbed and mumbled, "I love you too, Liam . . ." When she looked back up, he was gone. Emily sighed and wiped her tears away. She was just talking to herself again . . . she HAD to be crazy . . . But if Liam was really there, then he was right . . . She can't deny his wish for her . . .

She had to move on . . .


	37. Chapter 37: Lunatic

Apparently Emily slept through the party.

It was already the first day of training. Emily ate with the tributes and Abir, but she felt a little nauseous and didn't talk much to any of them.

Dear god . . . Abraham woke up to hangovers like that often? How was he able to do it?

"Are you okay, Ms. Emily?" Velcro asked.

"I'm okay, sweetie . . ." Emily groaned and massaged her temples. "Just a nasty headache . . ." she said and took a sip of her coffee. "Okay this is first day of training you honestly don't know what's going to come your way," Emily started, "I recommend you learn how to make fire, a snare, and learn how to make a net today. I guarantee two out of the three will be useful for where you're going. In fact, just go into the survival section today."

Emily saw that Vulture was listening to her too, but kept talking directly to Velcro and pretend she didn't notice his interest in her words.

"Survival is key for the Games. There will be days that nothing happens and you have to do things yourself in order to keep yourself alive. Today, just learn on survival. Identify poisonous plants, worse comes to worse you'll have to eat bugs—"

"WHAT!?"

"Didn't say doing this is going to be pretty or tasteful," Emily shook her head.

Velcro made a look of disgust and looked back at her food in front of her. Might as well eat it now since she would be forced to live off the wild of the arena in a couple days. "What do you recommend if we couldn't get any weapons from the Cornucopia?" Vulture asked.

"Use a rock," Emily answered as she cut her omelet. She didn't go into detail on what he had to do with a rock, she didn't want to scare Velcro anymore than she already was about going into the arena. She had already seen what happened on the screen since she was a toddler, stressing her out more would just cloud her mind and get her killed faster . . .

Vulture was going to ask more questions when Thorburn interrupted, "Better get down to the training center on time. Don't want to be late."

Velcro finished the rest of her plate before she ran off to the elevator before Vulture followed just behind her. Emily sighed and sipped her coffee before she massaged her temples some more. "You seem a little bit better?" Abir said before he took a bite of his breakfast.

"Why do you say that?" she quietly groaned.

"Despite the fact you're a little hung-over, you look less out of it," he answered.

"Still need to work on it a little more?" she asked and sipped the last drop of her coffee.

"We've all had our bad days," he shrugged and finished the last bit of his plate. "Are you going to join me up on the roof?"

"What for?"

"The mentors usually hang out up on the roof during training time. We're actually supposed to be down in the training center, but nothing ever happens and whenever something does happen the Peacekeepers are there to stop anything. It's not mandatory to go down there anyway. Only a few of the mentors go down there, while the rest of us either go back to sleep or hang out up on the roof to socialize," he explained.

"Lets see . . . go down to the training center and be bored out of my mind . . . actually have fun with people . . ." she started and pretended she was thinking long and hard on the subject. Abir saw that and smirked at her. "I don't know Abir . . . tough choice . . ."

"Then I'll see you around, whatever your choice is," he laughed. "By the way, if you DO decide to join us, steal some alcohol from this floor. We tend to drink a lot. Honestly, the tributes are going to be training all day, we literally have the whole day to ourselves these next few days."

Emily lightly chuckled and nodded. "I'll come around eventually. I'm going to take a nap before joining ya'll," she said before she dapped her lips with her napkin and put it to the side for the Avox to collect.

"See you around, kid," he nodded and walked off to the elevator.

Emily sighed and went to her room and passed out immediately on her bed.

She opened her eyes once more, everything was grey. She looked around herself, nothing but grey. Why did it feel familiar?

She saw something on the ground . . . drops of blood . . . her eyes followed the trail and saw someone against the wall. No . . . PINNED against the wall. She remembered her . . . one of the Careers . . . she was crying.

"Please . . ." she begged.

Please what . . .?

"Please don't kill me . . ." she whispered.

Emily looked away and found a knife in her hand that was dripping with blood. She looked back up at the Career girl and found the girl with her face peeled off. She screamed and dropped the knife with a clang. Someone walked past her . . . she realized it was her . . . but the way she moved was different.

Emily of the Games picked up the knife present Emily dropped, wielded two knives and slit the Career girl's throat open when she cried out for help for a moment. Emily gasped and looked away when Games Emily cut open the girl's stomach underneath the message she carved.

She was gonna be sick . . .

Emily looked back and saw the joy in Games Emily's eyes. She was satisfied with her work . . . and yet she felt so empty . . . it wasn't enough . . .

Games Emily saw her . . . the real Emily and a dark smile formed from the corner of her lips. "Everyone saw . . . the whole world saw you . . . they're going to remember Emily . . . the merciless murderer of District 8 . . ." she laughed before she slit her own throat open.

She woke up screaming and on the floor of her room. Emily had rolled out of bed after she had tossed and turned in her sleep. She jumped out of bed and took a shower to wash away the cold sweat and the dirty feeling of her victim's blood and fear.

Why wouldn't the feeling go away . . .? This . . . feeling of uncleanliness . . .? How many showers had she taken to wash away their blood? What will it take for it to fade away?

She was so afraid . . . so afraid of herself.

Emily went into the living room and found herself alone. She turned on the T.V. and Caesar was playing recaps of past Hunger Games. Bet the Capitol wanted the rest of Panem to be excited for the upcoming Games . . .

He spoke of his favorite moment of each Games . . . then they made it to last year's Hunger Games . . . Emily's Games . . .

"I will admit, last year's was the bloodiest we have seen in a while. Thirteen killed in the bloodbath at the Cornucopia and two killed by the force field on the first day!" Caesar laughed with amusement. "What I enjoyed was the transformation of our newest victor, Emily Horwitz of District 8. She ran away from Death and by a change of events, she actually went SEARCHING for the last remaining tributes when she had been running from them most of the Games. Oh! You remember when she burned those two tributes and she was cooking her meal over the flaming bodies," Caesar laughed. "I was actually laughing throughout that part with how carefree she appeared during that—"

Emily turned off the T.V. and sighed before she pinched the bridge of her nose. She couldn't believe he was actually LAUGHING at that part. Emily couldn't imagine what he would say about what she did to that Career girl who's face she peeled off . . . was everyone in the Capitol laughing through that?

Were they amused with what she did . . .?

She had to be one of the most psychotic victors they had! Emily thought they didn't allow crazy people to win the Games! Like the cannibal they killed off some Games ago! The Gamemakers kept censoring his killings because the Capitol didn't react well to him eating his victims . . .

Why did they let Emily's killings let slip . . .?

She was a lunatic after all . . .

Emily shook her head and got back on her feet. She had to get her mind off it. She was alive after all. The Capitol allowed her to live and were allowing her to mentor potential victors.

She went into the kitchen and swiped a bottle of vodka and a bottle of scotch before she went to the elevator to the roof. "Hey guys! Sorry I'm late!" she called out and joined the other mentors.


	38. Chapter 38: Rain

Within the next couple days, Emily socialized with all the mentors while the tributes trained down in the training center. She spoke to Velcro and Vulture when they would come back up after training for dinner. After dinner, Emily would teach Velcro some moves that would come in handy for the Games, same as wheat Abraham taught her a year ago as well as what she had taught herself during her exercising time.

She did the same with Vulture and actually practiced fighting with him for two to three hours before he went to sleep.

Emily's doubts still stood . . . she didn't see any of those kids coming back alive . . .

Private session day arrived faster than the kids wanted . . .

Emily stared at Velcro as they all ate breakfast in silence, the poor girl was trembling so hard that she was having difficulty picking at her food. "You'll be okay, sweetie," she said quietly.

"But . . . what if I mess up . . .?" she mumbled.

"I've heard good things about you from the trainers. If you mess up and get a bad score, surprise us in the arena. There's two strategies but there's always a downside to it. Either get a bad score and get no sponsors, but at least you surprise us and get a slew of sponsors from that. And then there's getting a good score and getting a lot of sponsors, but the downside is that the other tributes will target you. There's no right strategy to use, what matters is how well the results is with whichever you choose . . ." she explained as she poured syrup onto her waffles and blueberries.

"So her getting a bad score will mean that she'll live longer?" Vulture asked.

"The Careers won't find much threat if a twelve-year-old gets a bad score. It's boring preying on someone that doesn't challenge them . . ." she said.

"You want me to get a bad score . . .?" Velcro asked.

Emily looked to Abir since she wasn't sure what the right move would be for their youngest tribute. By the look on his face, he wasn't sure either. They both knew she wasn't coming out alive, yet they kept giving her advice that would guarantee a win . . .

By that point in planning for the Games and for private session . . . it was just like gambling. There was a slim chance making the right move . . .

"It might be safer if you get a low score . . ." Emily answered quietly.

After dinner, Vulture and Velcro went down to the elevators and left Abir and Emily alone in their penthouse. "So what are you going to do until they come back?" Abir asked.

Emily shrugged and pulled her hair back in a ponytail. "I don't know . . . go on roof again maybe."

"You have fun with that then. I'm going to walk around the Capitol. They should be back in four hours," Abir answered.

"God . . ." Emily chuckled under her breath. "I feel so bad for District 12! They get to wait longer for their turn!" she laughed.

"I know! They're kids! You can't let them wait a couple hours. Making them wait on their floor would be better, at least they would entertain themselves before going down to be evaluated!" Abir laughed.

"Right!?" she laughed. "Okay! Sorry, you can go on your walk. I'll see you in a couple hours," Emily waved him good-bye.

"See ya!"

Emily changed into a light purple sundress and waited a half an hour for the elevators before she went up to the roof. Considering that the tower held twelve districts with one elevator, it would take a while for to catch an elevator without it stopping every floor.

When she got up to the roof, it was raining. Emily took in a deep breath and smiled, she loved the smell of rain . . . she loved the rain, in general. It hardly rained in District 8; it would explain why there was hardly any life there. Not a blade of grass grew in Eight, it was practically a blessing that it would rain once in a while.

She stood in the middle of the roof and let the rain soak her dress and hair. The cool drops felt good against her fair skin. Emily closed her eyes and it immediately went back to that time when she was homeless.

She had run away from her parents' house six months before and hadn't told anyone of her lifestyle. Emily didn't want to live with Liam's family at the time since she felt she would have burdened them. It took a lot of convincing from Liam to go live with Harmony and Cece before Emily finally agreed.

It was raining just like that day and she was living underneath one of the trains that hadn't moved in years. Liam was soaked to the bone when he found her and dragged her out from underneath the train to take her to Harmony's shared home.

She opened her eyes again and stared ahead at the Capitol buildings. How she hated being there again . . . She took a deep breath and sighed before she went back inside.

*****

Vulture got an eight and Velcro got a four from their evaluation. Vulture showed off his use with a spear and how well he threw one at the dummies. Velcro went for camouflage.

The twelve-year old tribute ran to her room when she saw her score and locked herself in their for a couple hours. She must have been so scared of going in there. Perhaps she was hoping for a better score than a four or she was just afraid she won't get the help she needed when she would be thrown in the arena . . .

They all went to bed so they would all be ready for the lessons the next day.

Emily heard running footsteps go down the hall that woke her up. She rubbed her eyes and walked out of her room and heard rummaging coming from the floor kitchen. Followed by a sleepy groan, she went down the hall and found Vulture standing in front of one of the drawers sobbing.

"Vulture . . . what are you doing . . .?" she asked.

Vulture gasped and looked to Emily. Her eyes looked to what he was holding in his hand and what she saw was a knife and blood running down it. Emily's eyes widened and looked to Vulture's wrist oozing with blood.

"What the HELL are you doing!?" she exclaimed, pulled the knife out of his hand and struck him. "Suicide!? Really Vulture!?" she yelled.

"There's no Peacekeepers here that's keeping me from doing it and the Avox are asleep! I had the perfect opportunity to get out of this before it's too late!" Vulture yelled back.

His body trembled and she saw the look of fear in his eyes. He was terrified . . . and she should have seen that the whole time. Vulture had been hiding his fear the whole time and he finally snapped.

"I can't do it . . ." he said quietly. "I don't know how you did it . . . I don't know how you sucked it up and did what you did . . ."

Emily sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't know either . . ." she mumbled. "All I can say to you is that you're a bigger coward than I was a year ago . . ."

She couldn't tell him she thought of the idea of jumping off the roof, but she had to set a good example for the tribute. Honestly, she couldn't think of anything else to say at that point. He was already freaking out as it was, playing the bad cop at that moment would just make him suicidal even more.

"Come on . . . you have lessons tomorrow for your interview . . ." she sighed, threw the knife into the sink, and lightly pushed Vulture out of the kitchen and into his room.


	39. Chapter 39: PreGames

Winnow freaked out when she saw the gash on Vulture's wrist. One of the Avox ran off to go get some medicine that would heal up his wound before the interview they had to go to tomorrow.

Emily looked to Vulture before she turned away from him. Last night, before she put him to bed, he told her his life story . . .

His brother and sister were reaped in Games. His sister was reaped the same time as Abir. Vulture didn't hold anything against Abir, he and his sister weren't allies in the Games so he knew his mentor couldn't have done anything to save her . . . it was the same thing with his brother . . . he was Beaufort . . .

He lost both his brother and sister and they were both reaped with his mentors . . .

Vulture was so angry that both had to die and both had to listen to the same people that reaped with them. He was just so scared that he was going to go the same way his siblings did, he hated feeling weak and that was why he tried to pick a fight with Emily on the train. But each time she looked at him much like the Careers looked at his siblings before their death.

When he looked into Emily's angry eyes and knew what she was capable of from what he had seen on the screen, just the look she gave him was like looking into his future.

He wasn't going to live . . . he knew that . . .

Vulture went with Abir while Velcro went with Emily and gave them lessons on how to behave for the interviews.

*****

Emily and Abir watched the interviews from their district floor and listened to each and every one of the tributes interviews to see what Velcro and Vulture were up against.

Of course, District 1 and 2 were full of Careers at the age of eighteen, stereotypically at the top of their class and volunteered to be in the Games. One of the tributes from Four looked like a big threat as well. Abraham's tribute, Wren Greenlaw, who Emily saw on the train, didn't look that intimidating. She appeared as a stereotypical good-looking fifteen-year-old with no brain cells.

Then it was Velcro's turn after District 7's male tribute finished.

And the crowd LOVED her. And Caesar helped a great deal to make her likable. In all expectancy, Emily hoped that she got more sponsors since they got to know her a bit. Anyone born in the Capitol would want her because she was the most adorable thing they had ever seen.

Right after Velcro, it was Vulture's turn . . . and to Emily's amazement he did exactly what she told him. He was still honest, but threw in some jokes here and there. The audience and Caesar laughed and Caesar would even add up to it to make it hilarious.

Both of them didn't talk much about their life back in District 8, it was too precious to them and they wanted their life to be kept to themselves as well as the people of Eight. Even if the Capitol took interest in what they did before they were reaped . . . they wanted to keep what was theirs . . .

*****

Emily heard crying coming from the living room. After they had dinner, all but Velcro went to their rooms to sleep. She walked over and saw Velcro curled in a ball and hugging her knees as she quietly sobbed.

"Velcro . . ." Velcro gasped and wiped her tears away before she looked up at Emily. Even if Emily didn't notice the sobbing Velcro's obviously told her what she was doing. "Why aren't you in bed?"

Velcro didn't answer. Her body trembled as Emily approached her and was trying to blink her tears away, but they kept pouring out uncontrollably before she started to cry again. "I'm scared . . ." the girl mumbled.

Tomorrow she was going to fly to the arena . . .

Emily sat beside her and pat Velcro's head as she cried. The blonde twelve-year-old hugged Emily and cried into her chest. Emily rest her head on top of Velcro's and ran her fingers through the girl's hair as she let Velcro cry.

"I don't want to go . . . I don't want to go . . ." Velcro mumbled. "I want to go home . . ."

She wanted to do something about her going into the Games . . . but she didn't have that sort of power . . . there was . . . NOTHING Emily could do to protect Velcro from the Capitol . . .


	40. Chapter 40: Games

Velcro didn't want to go to sleep alone. She asked Emily to sleep in the same room as her until morning. Emily couldn't say no. The night before the Games, the Capitol would completely locked the doors so the tributes wouldn't run away when fear eventually hit them.

Velcro needed some form of comfort for that night, as if she believed Emily being there would keep the sun from rising. Velcro slept on Emily's lap while she ran her fingers through the tribute's blonde hair.

Emily fell asleep an hour later and had the haunting nightmare again.

_ "Are you scared?" Emily asked and looked to him._

"Of course I am . . ." Liam answered, looking out to the Capitol, observing the lights of the grand city.

"Tonight might be our last night . . ." she mumbled.

"It's not going to be your last night . . ." Liam shook his head at her.

"You're REALLY that sure I'm going to live longer than a day in that arena?" Emily questioned.

"I am . . ." he nodded. "You don't realize that thinking with your brain is going to get you far in the Games. Instinct is good, but being intelligent and cunning will help you," he explained to her.

"You're probably thinking of another girl. I'm not any of that Liam . . ."

"You have to learn to take compliments and praises. You belittle yourself too often," he shook his head.

"That's just your opinion . . ."

They stay silent, sitting next to each other holding each other's hand, and staring ahead at the brightly lit city.

"So what's the plan when the gong goes off?" Liam asked her.

Emily blinked and leaned back on the wall. "I don't have a plan . . ." she answered honestly. "What about you? Do you have one?"

Liam lightly smiled and nodded. "I have a plan . . ."

The plan . . .

_ "I never planned on getting out of here alive . . ." he replied. "Ever since I saw you at the after party . . ." he stopped and coughed a little, "I promised myself I would stay by your side so you would win the Games."_

"You're so stupid . . ." she whispered.

He lightly chuckled and pulled her in for their second kiss. "I love you Emily . . . I'm grateful that I met you . . . and got to see you again . . ." his voice trailed. His eyes fluttered a little and his eyes were starting to glaze.

"No . . no Liam . . . please, let's talk some more," Emily whimpered and pressed her forehead to his. "Liam . . . I do love you . . . I thought of you so much since you left to live in Nine . . . I hated that the only person that understood me and believed in me left. I'm sorry . . . I'm sorry I didn't realize how you felt about me . . . I wish I found out sooner . . ." she cried quietly. Her body trembled and sobbed a little. "Liam . . . please . . ."

"Em . . . you'll be okay . . ." he sighed. He slowly ran his fingers through her hair, kissed her tears away, and kissed her lips last. "You'll be okay . . ." Emily shook her head, denying his words. She kissed him that time, her lips trembled at the very touch of his cold lips. "I love you Emily . . ."

"I love you too . . ." she cried. The cannon fire boomed and echoed throughout the arena.

His hand then grasped around her throat and pinned her to the ground in his choking hold. Emily tried to pull him off, but he kept his strong hands around her neck and kept her from breathing.

"It should have been you . . ." he hissed.

Emily tried to cry out for him to let go, but couldn't. She tried to push him off with her legs, but he was too damn heavy to budge. Emily looked back at him and Liam's eyes turned yellow and his canines sharpened.

She screamed before the imitation of Liam dove towards her neck.

Emily gasped awake and pulled her red hair back from her sweating face. She sighed and rest her face into her palms as she took deep breaths to slow her heart rate.

She felt cold with fear . . . When were the nightmares going to end?

*****

_"No matter what, run from the Cornucopia . . ." Emily said to Velcro. "I know there are items there, but at that point they go for the . . . younger tributes first during the bloodbath._

That was what Emily told her before Velcro left to the aircraft that would take her to the arena. Vulture nodded to Abir and Emily for the advice they had given him in the past few days. They gave them all the advice they would use in the arena . . . they just hoped for the best.

All the mentors went down into the large room where they held the after party. All the sponsors and anyone important from the Capitol gathered there too as they awaited the tributes to arrive at the arena and ready themselves for the fight of their lives.

Everyone was friendly and energetic during this gathering, obviously the mentors were not as thrilled to be there as they remembered their times in the arena. The victors wore darker colors than their rainbow colored sponsors that giggled and drank to their hearts content.

One of them especially, was darker than the rest of them. Emily stared towards his direction and tried to remember why exactly he looked familiar. Black hair and icy blue eyes . . .

"That's Christo from Two, he doesn't talk to us often . . ." Treshaun said to Emily.

"How come?" Emily asked and took a sip of her strawberry martini.

"He's just . . . not as sociable. He broods more than the rest of us. Christo, like a few of us, is always on the downer-side," he shrugged.

"Hmm . . ." Emily looked back to Christo, who was socializing with some sponsors, probably buttering them up for his tributes of his district.

The screen on the wall finished a commercial to not miss today's Hunger Games when it projected the arena and the tributes coming up from the tubes.

It was time . . .

The arena was covered in snow and pine trees surrounded the tributes and the Cornucopia.

Thirty seconds . . .

Emily's eyes searched around for Vulture and Velcro to know where they were all located.

Twenty seconds . . .

One of the tributes eyed Velcro hungrily . . . no . . . not her . . .

Ten . . .

Emily took a deep breath and closed her eyes . . . tune everyone out and watch the tributes.

The gong went off and Emily's eyes flew open toward Velcro. Instead of running away, she ran towards the CORNUCOPIA! Emily let out a gasp and when Velcro picked up a pack, that girl from Seven, Wren, slit her throat open with an axe and took Velcro's bag before she ran for the trees.

Velcro was dead . . .


	41. Chapter 41: Snow!

Why didn't she listen . . .? Why didn't Velcro listen to Emily? She should have run for the forest . . . away from the Cornucopia . . .

And now . . .

Emily ran her fingers through her hair and looked away from the screen from the bloodbath. The sponsors watched the screen with great interest, laughing and commenting with enthusiasm. She couldn't believe that those people actually enjoying watching children murder each other.

In her delight . . . she wondered if they would think the same thing if their children were thrown in the arena to kill each other . . . would they laugh? Or would they finally see through the eyes of the districts?

Emily shook her head and drank her martini as the others had their eyes to the screen. Emily Games flashed before her eyes as she heard the cries of the tributes . . . how she ran from the Cornucopia but had no way of escape if Liam didn't come for her aid . . . her emotional breakdown when she and Liam were safe from harm in that small grey room . . . and the realization that she made the top ten . . .

**BOOM!**

Emily turned to the screen again, so many dead tributes . . . their blood splattered all over the white snow and their corpses slowly being covered by the fallen snow. Nine more cannon fire followed after the first, counted ten dead.

Fourteen still alive . . .

The cameras followed the remaining tributes, one of them being Vulture and the other Wren . . . so they were still alive . . . At least one of her tributes was still alive . . .

Vulture was stumbling all over the place since the snow was up to his knees. Hiding from the other tributes was going to be difficult unless it was snowing harder on them. He had a pack on him that must have been closest to him before he made a run for it.

Everything had calmed down and the tributes were far apart from one another, so Emily looked away and finished her martini. "So now we wait . . .?" she asked.

"And now we wait . . ." Abir sighed.

Most of the tributes kept searching for a place to hide, some of them forgot to cover their tracks. The Careers were just behind them following their tracks in the snow. Vulture was the few that covered his tracks when it became easier to walk. He found a burrow for himself and started to make a fire with some branches from a bush he found nearby and needles from the pine trees.

"Someone is bound to find him soon if he's already making a fire . . ." Emily sighed.

"You're catching up," Librae said.

"It's common sense . . ." she rolled her eyes.

Emily kept her eyes on the screen to Vulture. No tributes have found him yet and he looked fine. He didn't need gifts from sponsors just yet. Vulture took notice that there was no water in his canteen, so he melted the snow and poured the water into his canteen from a leaf.

Some of the mentors were already on the move talking to sponsors to get something for their tributes while Emily stayed put with her eyes to the screen.

"Take some time to blink . . ." a voice said to her.

She looked up and saw Abraham take a seat beside her with a glass of scotch with ice. "I tend to forget I have eyelids . . ." she sarcastically.

"Bad mood?"

"You have nooooo idea . . ."

They stayed in silence watching their tributes. His tribute, Wren, was slowly getting closer to Vulture and Emily was getting a bad feeling. Emily's eyes went to Abraham's direction without making it too obvious and immediately noticed his axe necklace. She remember he wore it in his Games too, as a token from his district.

Just like Emily wore Cece's gold leaf necklace as a token from her district.

Abraham was so young when he went into his Games . . . just a young boy at fourteen . . .

Wren found Vulture and from the looks of it, she asked to ally with him. Emily wasn't too sure about the combination. Vulture didn't know it . . . he didn't know that that girl killed Velcro . . . he would never find out . . . but within a few hours he would discover that she was dead.

Emily watched Wren closely at how she used her good looks and charm as a way to win Vulture over to be a part of an alliance. Typical teenage boy . . . blinded by a pretty face . . .

The Anthem started to play and show all the fallen tributes that had died that day, and once the Anthem finished the screen turned off.

Of course, no one was going to stay up all night to watch the Games. They would continue the broadcast in the morning and recap what happened while everyone was asleep to see if they had missed anyone being killed in the night.

Emily got up and brushed her the wrinkles from her dress and nodded to Abraham. "See you tomorrow Abraham."

"Just call me Abe. It's too formal," he shook his head, finished the rest of his scotch, and got on his feet.

Emily made way to the Tribute Tower with the rest of the mentors and waited patiently as they went up every floor until she and Abir reached the eighth floor. She went to sleep immediately, exhausted from watching the Games. Emily immediately went to sleep without getting into her pajamas or taking her make-up off. She was far too tired to do any of that stuff.

Vulture was in her dreams . . . or her nightmare. He was suffocating . . . and just like that, the cannon fired.

The next morning, Emily went down to the same room with the mentors and sponsors. When the Games came back on and did recaps on what they missed while they were sleeping, Vulture died.

Wren suffocated him with the snow coat they were given to survive in the snow.

No tribute from District 8 victor that year . . .


	42. Chapter 42: Blow Some Steam!

Emily sighed and rubbed her temples roughly. Both of them dead on the first day . . .

She looked over to Abir, who made the same reaction as her when he found out that their last tribute from their district was killed already. Emily looked towards the sponsors that commented on losing their bet on some of the tributes that died before the sun rose and their children reenacted the deaths of the tributes they just saw on T.V.

The very view of the adults betting money and drinks on lives while their children ran around pretending to be the dead tributes . . .

Did the children reenact Liam's death . . . her going insane and killing off the Careers? It sickened her . . . she just . . . wanted to scream and set the room on fire and watch the people of the Capitol burn alive . . .

Emily got on her feet and pat Abir's shoulder before she said, "I'm going to be off then . . ."

"Okay . . ." he nodded and looked back at the screen after the recaps finished.

There was nothing else for a mentor to do when all their tributes die. Basically, it was a vacation from working once both of them perish. Emily walked back the Tribute Tower, but didn't go to her floor, instead she went down to the basement to the Training Center.

She needed to let out some steam . . . the Capitol wouldn't bee too happy if she went on a rampage and tried to destroy the city. They'd kill her off immediately . . .

The elevators doors opened and Emily walked into the Training Center she remembered so clearly. Nothing changed . . . well, except for the fact there were no tributes around practicing and enhancing their skills for the Games. The room was a little darker due to inactivity. Only some ceilings lamps lit the room when Emily walked in.

The equipment were still around and organized in the exact spots she remembered they were in last year. Emily walked over to the knives section and picked four out of their stands. Having them in between her fingers felt familiar and right . . . she didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

It felt right because it was her weapon of choice next to using needles for acupuncture . . .

It felt wrong because it reminded her of the arena . . .

Some dummies stood fifteen yards from her . . . and she swore that they were asking her to throw the knives. She slowly exhaled a breath before she threw the knives one by one and each hit the head.

She kept practicing with the throwing knives, she even started juggling with them at some points and once in a while cut herself because she caught them by the blade. Emily moved on from weapon to weapon, learning by herself how to use them, and with a few she remembered how to handle them. The axe and sword were the ones she remembered how to handle . . .

There were only two weapons she had been avoiding . . . the bow and the spear . . .

Emily lightly brushed her fingers against the spear when images of Liam's death flashed before her eyes that made her pull away. But she didn't break down and cry. At that point she was getting used to her traumatizing flashbacks hitting her from time to time.

But overall . . . she couldn't handle going near the spear. It brought too much pain. And she wasn't ready to touch the bow just yet . . . it felt like it was too soon.

"Found you, Red."

Emily turned and saw Abrah—Abe come into the Training Center. "We were playing hide and seek?"

"You were playing it, you mean," he shrugged.

"I'm really not missing much . . . my job is done until I have to come back next year . . ." Emily said and started playing with the knives again. She couldn't help but remember that the tribute that killed Velcro and Vulture was HIS tribute. "Abir was right . . ." she sighed.

"What was that?"

"Abir told me not to get attached to my tributes . . ." she answered and threw a knife into the dummy's eye. A prime mistake a mentor could ever make.

"Then you'll know better next year . . ."

"Maybe . . ." She walked over to the knives she had thrown and pulled them out of the dummies to put them back. "So what are you doing here? Isn't your tribute still alive?"

He shrugged. "One mentor kissing up to the sponsors is enough to help a tribute. There are some districts that only have one victor or no victor at all," he answered.

Oh right . . . she didn't realize that. Usually the Careers were the ones that won, what about some districts that got lucky and had no one to mentor them?

"I think I need a drink . . ." she sighed. "Join me?"

*****

Emily woke up with a terrible headache. She cracked her eyes open and immediately shut them. Has the sun ALWAYS been that bright? Dear god, how much did she have to drink?

She rubbed her eyes and stretched out her toes until she felt her toes brush against something. What the hell was that? She cracked an eye open and found red hair lay right beside her. "Oh god . . ." She slowly lift the covers off to see the face and full on panicked, "FUCK!" she exclaimed and rolled off the bed.

Shit . . . shit . . .

Emily went and ran into the restroom to clean herself up. What the hell happened last night!?


	43. Chapter 43: Morning, Slut!

"Shit . . . shit . . . fuck," Emily hissed as she slipped away after her shower and out of her room.

"Good morning, slut," Abir smiled and drank his coffee.

"I can wrestle you to the ground RIGHT NOW . . ." she snapped and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Fine fine . . . didn't think you would be that kind of drunk," he laughed.

"Neither did I . . . OH GOD!" she exclaimed and blushed crimson red. "What exactly did you see . . .?" she asked timidly.

"Just you two laughing like a bunch of hyenas, drunk out of your minds, and went into your room," he answered. "That's all I saw."

"Did you hear anything?"

"I'll never tell," he laughed.

"Tell me you bastard!"

"Hell no!" he laughed. "Seeing you like this is amusing."

"You're such a prick!"

"Keep it down you two . . ." Abe mumbled as he rubbed his temples. His red hair was an utter mess and dragged his feet to the kitchen. "Can someone explain why I woke up naked?"

Emily blushed redder than before. "You were drunk, as usual, and stripped before you completely crashed. Em had to sleep on the couch since you were in her bed," Abir answered with a smile before he sipped his coffee. Emily looked over to Abir, eyeing him as if she was asking what he was doing.

"Dammit . . . sorry about that . . ."

Seriously . . . he bought the lie . . .?

"What time is it . . .?" Abe mumbled.

"You should have been down with the other mentors two hours ago. Best hop to it," Abir said.

"Yeah . . . see you guys . . ." he groaned and left.

"Why did you lie?" Emily asked.

"You really wanted to tell him that you two screwed?" he asked with a sinister smile.

Emily gawked at him for a moment and slapped her forehead. "Lying is better . . ." she sighed. "Did I really sleep with him?" Abir chuckled and turned away to pour his coffee. Emily groaned and crashed onto the couch. "Kill me now . . ."


	44. Chapter 44: Seven Years

After that morning, Emily and Abe had been avoiding one another. They would talk once in a while, but it never lasted more than five minutes before one of them walked away. Mostly Emily, since she would blush as red as her hair.

Abe's tribute, Wren, won the 69th Hunger Games. She took refuge in the trees and waited for the last remaining tribute to walk underneath her. Well, until muttations attacked. The last tribute was far behind Wren and the only other option she thought of in order for her to not get ripped to shreds was throw her axe at his head and leave him for the muttations.

Years went by and Emily grew used to the new lifestyle of being a mentor. She had grown into a party animal after befriending Treshaun, became a sister figure to Dakota, and very sarcastic around Abe. Overall, nothing much changed over the years.

Emily's nightmares of her Games have reoccurred less and less over the years, but she had seen them so often that they didn't scare her as much. Just the thought that she would never have to go back in the arena calmed her mind. Emily had fully moved on.

Liam didn't haunt her anymore . . . it had completely stopped when she realized she had feelings for another . . .

Not one tribute from Eight won the Games since Emily won . . .

The third Quarter Quell was tomorrow . . . and they all found out the theme . . . "Forty-eight go in . . . twenty-four young tributes . . . and twenty-four victors . . ."

When Emily heard the news, she nearly fainted and her Games flashed before her eyes and completely panicked.

"It's not fair . . . IT'S NOT FAIR!" she exclaimed. "How could Snow do this to us!? We were guaranteed a free pass! We DID our time! Why are we going back in!?" she cried.

"It's the Capitol, Em!" Phox said. "They want us to suffer! That shouldn't be news to you!"

"It's BULLSHIT! That's what it is!" she snarled. She was angry . . . and scared. There was only her and Cecelia to be reaped. Emily had a fifty percent chance of being reaped again. Not only that . . . she couldn't possibly allow the Capitol to take Cecelia away from her children. Emily simply wouldn't let her children watch their mother kill people and die on screen . . .

She had to go back . . .

Emily went to the Reaping with a nasty hang-over. Cecelia right beside her, and the boys side with: Woof, Phox, and Abir. Then there were the regular tributes just behind them.

The victors go first . . .

Emily took Cecelia's hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze. Emily had to do it . . .

"Ladies first . . ." Thorburn called with a sad tone in his voice. He went to the glass bowl with hundreds of pieces of paper in there with Cecelia and Emily's name. He picked one out with a shaking hand and ripped it open. "Cecelia—"

"I volunteer!" Emily called out the moment she heard Cecelia's name. Cecelia shot a look to Emily before she slipped away up the stairs of the Justice Hall. She had to go up there . . . it had to be her . . .

The reaping went on. Abir was reaped as well . . . together they would die in the arena . . .

*****

Emily watched the scenery go by much faster than she wanted. She had gone onto the train so often over the years that the feeling of certain death to her destination had faded over the years.

But now . . . the feeling came back. She was certain her first time that she was going to die because she had no skills to defend herself. She had the skills . . . she had been training for years for reasons she couldn't explain. She was capable of using more weapons than just knives, she had the strength and speed of the Careers now . . .

And yet she would never use any of it against the tributes she had to go up against OR the victors she grew to become friends with . . .

The Capitol really wanted everyone to suffer . . . and they didn't even realize they were tormenting all the districts . . .

Emily sighed and walked out to the dining room.

Since she was a tribute for the Games again, she wasn't allowed to wander around from car to car like when she was a mentor. The tributes should not socialize with anyone from other districts, some sort of thing the Capitol was against. They would even cut the cameras away from alliances that spoke about different districts to keep all the viewers from understanding the hardship the tributes went through . . .

Abir came in a moment later with a sad look on his face as well and sat beside Emily. "Hey . . ."

"Hey . . ."

"How are you holding up . . .?"

"Okay, I suppose . . ." Emily sighed. "I mean . . . we heard about this a few months ago . . . it sunk into me then . . . either I'm used to it or my brain hasn't fully functioned the fact that I'm going back AND I'm going against our friends . . ."

"Yeah . . . that sounds like what I'm feeling right now. Wouldn't be surprised if the rest of us aren't feeling the same . . ." Abir said and leaned back into his seat.

Emily stayed silent and ran her fingers through her hair. "Do you have a plan . . .?"

Abir shook his head. "No . . . I don't . . . you?"

"I never have a plan . . ." she answered quietly. "I just act on instinct . . ."

Abir took her hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "It's been nice working with you, Em . . . you've done a great job the last couple years . . ."

"Thanks . . . same to you . . . I don't know how to repay you. You've helped me a great deal over the years," she said and lightly smiled a little.

"Well . . . to repay me, don't go nuts and peel my face. Deal?"

Emily lightly laughed. "Thinking like an insane person . . . I wouldn't do the same trick twice . . ." Abir made a grave face. "Fine fine . . . deal."


	45. Chapter 45: We Live Only Once

The same routine . . . eat all the meals on the train, get off when they reach the Capitol, get herself prettied up again, and slip into whatever costume Winnow made. Her team didn't say a word to Emily as they were fixing her up.

They were trying to hold in tears. They hated the fact that Emily, and the rest of the victors, had to go in again.

Winnow pulled and tightened at Emily's corset dress. It was different shades of blue fluffed like a tutu and ended just above her knees. Wearing high heels that made her three inches taller, fake "lashes" that appeared like black lace, and eyeliner feathers that flowed to her cheekbone. Her hair was pulled up in a bun with her curls coming out loose and a large silver clipped some stray curls away from her face.

"You're lovely, Emily . . ." Winnow said.

"Thank you . . ." she answer unemotionally. She heard Winnow silently cry and her fingers tremble a little when she stopped tying the corset back. "Hey, Winnow . . ." She turned around and hugged her stylist. They had grown close over the years . . . the first time was hard for Winnow back in the arena, but being thrown in the arena again and saying goodbye to your best friend . . .

It was sheer torment . . .

Emily went down to the chariots and saw the first time tributes were waiting in their chariots while the victors were scattered around socializing with one another. She kept picking at her dress to cover her butt that she felt was exposed, but it only pulled her dress down a little and showed more cleavage.

She kept fixing her dress as she made way to her chariot and looked up to see where she was going from time to time. Emily would take notice of some of the victors she had spoken to a few times over the years, but wasn't close to at all.

Either way, it was a shame to see them have to come back and having to fight them in the arena. Especially the couple from District 6 that were planning to marry after the reaping.

And her closest friends, unfortunately, were reaped in the Games too. Such as: Treshaun, Trace, and Dakota. And, regrettably, Abe was going to be in the arena too.

Emily saw his red hair close to the District 7 chariot. Sometimes mentors stood by the tributes, but she saw his costume and immediately went pale . . . he was going in too . . . Emily was forced to fight someone important to her . . .

It wasn't fair . . . it wasn't FAIR! Did the Capitol hate her THAT much!? Was her behavior in the arena that appalling!? They could have just killed her off so the Capitol wouldn't have had a lunatic for a victor! If they let her live, they could have at least threatened her to not embarrass the Capitol and go nuts like she did in the arena . . . threatening her sounded way more appealing . . . way more than the punishment of having to fight Abraham . . .

It wasn't fair . . .

"Emily . . . Ms. Emily?"

"Hm?" Emily blinked and looked to Caesar then to the quiet audiences' direction. She literally didn't realize she was already being interviewed. Days had gone by so quickly since she discovered she had to kill her friends and the man she loved that time sped up faster than she wanted.

Everyone was waiting for her answer . . .

"Still spacing about even today," Caesar laughed. Obviously, Emily hadn't answered a while if Caesar had to crack a joke to lighten the mood and make Emily feel a little more comfortable that she was back on stage for her interview. "What I said was that you seemed to have developed more muscle than the last time we all saw you. What's your secret?"

"Oh . . . um . . . Well, first of all it has been a long while, growing everyday and so my body grew up in the process," she lightly smiled. "I also decided to diet a little, you know since I was coming back on T.V.," Emily lied.

She had been training like a Career for the past five years. She had no reason to strengthen her body and improve her skills in combat, she just wanted to get her mind off of things and relieve herself of stress.

Turned out her training would come to good use . . .

"Well you look amazing," Caesar smiled. "Ms. Emily, I have heard some rumors . . ."

"There's rumors about me?" she raised a brow.

The crowd lightly laughed as well as Caesar before he said, "There have been some rumors around that you are in a relationship, is that true?"

"What!? No!" she laughed. "Oh goodness, no! No no no! That is NOT true. I'm not with anyone," she answered.

"Well why not? You're lovely, you're sweet—are you making us believe you have not eyed anyone all these years?" Caesar asked.

Emily paused for what felt like forever when only seconds had passed. She looked over at Abe who was sitting a few rows away beside Wren and other tributes and victors that had already been interviewed.

She wanted to say it . . . just not in front of the cameras. Not only that but she couldn't use a blooming romance as a weapon when so many others were using the love card to win some sympathy and some sponsors . . . There was already a tribute from Four in love with an old childhood friend that was transferred to District 11 and the engaged victors from District 6 were using the same love card as well.

A third pairing would be overplayed . . .

She wanted to tell him . . . she wished she had more time . . . if only they weren't reaped . . . perhaps she would have told him how she felt about him . . .

She actually understood what Liam felt the whole time he was with her . . .

Emily sighed and looked back to Caesar when she felt time came into normal speed. "Yes . . . I'm really making you believe that I haven't eyed anyone after all these years . . . as you saw in my Games . . . I'm not exactly lucky in the romance department . . . " she answered. "That and I . . . haven't found the right guy . . ." she lied.

"That's too bad . . . any man would be lucky to be with you."

"I highly doubt that," Emily darkly smiled.

*****

Emily didn't stick around for the rest of the interviews and honest to god she didn't want to. She wanted to get out of her long dress and go to sleep. She pulled pins out of her hair as she walked to her district penthouse and cracked the door open a little before she heard, "Red . . ."

"What . . .?" she snapped and looked to Abe.

"Well, "hey" to you too—"

"What do you want, Abraham . . .?" she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She and Abe had the habit of calling each other by their full name if they were mad/frustrated at each other.

"That look you gave me before you answered one of your questions . . ."

"Dammit . . . I don't want to talk about it—"

"You're a real pain in the ass too, you know!" he snapped. "You always ask questions I have no answer to and you're never satisfied with it, you try to manipulate me, and whenever I try asking you personal questions you NEVER answer them and change the topic. Answer me that ONE question . . .!"

Emily groaned in frustration and eyed him. "You want to know why I looked at you when Caesar asked that question . . .? The answer should be obvious," she rolled her eyes and went inside.

"It's NOT obvious. You give out hints, but most of the time you come off as a bitch that enjoys teasing me," he growls and comes into the penthouse behind her.

"TAKE THE HINTS THEN! THEY'RE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT TRUE!" she screamed. Emily sighed, ran her fingers through her hair, and took in slow deep breaths to calm herself, if that wasn't clear enough to him might as well tell him. "I have . . . had a bit of a crush on you the past couple years . . . I thought I had time to tell you but—"

It was too late when the Quarter Quell reaping happened . . .

Emily walked over to the door and avoided Abe's eyes as she opened it up for him again. "You got your answer . . . now get out . . ." she said unemotionally. Emily had to bottle up her emotions. She had revealed her feelings to a man she was expected to kill off in the arena tomorrow . . . she had to keep it together . . .

Abe stared at her for a while before he approached her and leaned close to her ear. "Guess what . . . I've had a huge crush on you for a long time," he said before he left the room.

Emily stayed frozen to the spot long after Abe left. He felt the same . . .? The whole time? Every argument and awkward conversation they had . . . they both felt the same way the whole time . . .?

What utter—

Emily turned around and hurried to the elevator before the doors closed. She reached her arm out and stopped the doors from closing and looked up at Abe. "Just for tonight . . . we only live once . . ." she said, took his face, and desperately pressed her lips to his.


	46. Chapter 46: Hate

Emily woke up to rasping at the door. Right . . . she had to get ready to leave for the arena . . .

"Time to get up, Abraham . . ." a sad unfamiliar voice called from the other side of the door.

Abraham . . .? She then felt something stir just beside her which made her turn over to Abe.

Ooooooh right . . .

_Emily took his face and desperately pressed her lips to his. After their intense making out in the elevator, they moved into Abe's room. Embarrassed as they were, they went through with it anyway._

You only live once . . .

She picked up her dress and underwear off the floor as Abe woke up. They don't say anything . . . not one word . . . the atmosphere wasn't right nor would it lighten up . . .

"We shouldn't have said anything . . ." Abe said.

"You're right . . ." she agreed quietly and slipped back into their clothes.

"It would have been better . . . why did you have to tell me . . .?"

Emily didn't answer at first before she shook her head. "I don't know . . . I already told you I wasn't going to tell you . . . but you kept pushing it—"

"You're pushing the blame on me . . .?"

Emily closed her eyes and exhaled a long breath. "I'll see you in the arena . . ." she finally answered and left before he could say anything that was if he had anything to say . . . She went up to her floor and went to her room before Thorburn could finish his demand on to know where Emily was the whole night. Emily tore herself out of her dress before she jumped into the shower and tried to tune everything out.

Emily was in no mood to tell to anyone . . .

She balled her hands into fists, her nails pierced through her palms and blood ran down her arms and down the drain. She had to distract herself from the pain she felt in her chest. It was too familiar . . . it was too much like before . . .

Soon . . . It would be the end . . .

She would have to say goodbye to her coworkers, friends . . . and Abe.

Emily was accepting her fate . . . her death . . . she knew she wasn't going to come out alive . . .

Not when everyone she grew to love as her family was going to be in the arena too . . .


	47. Chapter 47: The Arena

Emily got dressed, ate a big breakfast even though she had no appetite. From what she learned, it was best to eat as much as possible now before being thrown into the arena.

That and that meal was most likely going to be her last good meal of her life . . .

She went up an elevator located in another part of Tribute Tower to the hovercraft that would take her and her competition to their death.

Emily was planning ways of surviving in her head and she knew exactly what she was going to do it. Everyone discovered that their fellow tribute, Christo was the Gamemaker that year, but was unfortunately reaped for the Games. He answered everything he knew about the arena during his interview and everyone started planning how to survive since last night.

Christo also revealed what the arena was and he even confessed that more than one would come out alive . . .

Even IF there would be more than one victor that year, Emily wasn't planning on coming out of the arena a second time.

There was no point for her to win . . .

In fact, there was no point the first time she got out of the arena . . .

Most of the victors had a plan and were betting on who would come out alive. Trace's daughter, Moriah, was reaped as well. Trace wasn't planning on coming out alive . . . Moriah didn't know about that plan and Trace made Emily promise to not tell her about it. As heartbroken as Emily was, she promised she would make sure Moriah would come out alive. But if Moriah, Trace, and Emily were the last remaining few, Emily had to kill Trace no matter what . . .

She promised him . . .

The doors opened and Emily approached the hovercraft. There were two, one for the first time tributes and one for the victors. Everyone gathered to their hovercrafts, Emily went inside the victor craft and immediately found Abe barred in and sleeping in his seat.

Emily blushed red within seconds and walked past him without batting an eyelash. After she pulled the bar down, one of the Capitol patrols came in and raised a hand to Emily. "Arm." Automatically Emily gave him her arm and he stabbed the device into her arm before he pressed a button to implant her tracker.

Her eyes searched the faces of the other victors, most of them had nervous looks in their eyes, a rare few were excited to go back in the arena, and a small handful looked rather calm. Her eyes went to Trace and he looked back at her before he nodded.

A part of her wished she wasn't friends with the victors . . . killing them was going to be hard . . .

Once the hovercraft lights turned off, the whole ship started to vibrate, waking up some of the victors from their short nap. Emily took a peek toward Abe, who stared back for a moment before he looked away as if nothing had changed between them.

It wasn't that he was a bastard, just difficult to read . . .

Emily even questioned if what they did last night was even worth it . . .

The windows of the hovercraft was shut tight so no view of the arena could be seem. Rather pointless when the Head Gamemaker spilled details about the arena. They know what the arena was, just not what to expect there.

Emily nearly dozed off to seep before the hovercraft landed and jolted her awake. The door opened wide and the bars flew open for everyone to get out and get to their spots. Emily followed the victors out and gently pushed through and caught Abe's hand.

He looked to her and Emily immediately became hesitant. She had her little speech planned out in her head, but her mind went blank the moment she touched his hand. How she hated feeling vulnerable in front of him.

If he would die before her . . . she wouldn't be able to handle it . . .

"I didn't mean to push the blame on you . . ." she finally said timidly. "I should have kept my mouth shut until you gave up." Emily saw he was about to protest, but she stopped him with a kiss and whispered, "Good luck . . ." before a Peacekeeper pried her away and took her to her room.

Emily played with the necklace charm that Cece gave her before her first Games as she made way to her destination with the Peacekeepers just behind her to keep her from making a run for it. She entered her room and was immediately welcomed by Winnow's shaky embrace.

"Come out alive . . . come out alive . . ." she said.

"Winnow . . ." Emily started and softly pulled her away to look Winnow in the eye. "You have been such a delight these past seven years . . . I'm glad you were assigned my stylist . . ."

Winnow balled her eyes out even more and hugged Emily again. Even if she wanted Emily to win again . . . she already knew Emily didn't plan on winning . . . saying goodbye to your best friend was the worst punishment the Capitol could ever do . . .

_One minute . . . _, the intercom called.

Emily exhaled a breath through her nostrils, closed her eyes, and counted backwards from twenty. She wasn't going to let fear get to her . . . not again. Emily knew what she had to do and she wasn't going to need help that time . . .

Winnow put a jacket over Emily and clipped the buttons shut to the curve of her breasts. The jacket was short that stopped just above her stomach; it was durable enough for her to know some knives if or when she needed to, and it would protect her from whatever the Gamemakers would throw at her.

Emily went into the tube just before it closed behind her. All went quiet . . .

She started to rise upward to the surface of the arena and Emily closed her eyes to ready for light to shine in her eyes. She felt she had stopped and the smell of moss overwhelmed her.

Emily opened her eyes and found the sky a blood red color, the side of the gold Cornucopia just in front of her, and dead trees surrounded them. Emily looked behind her, far beyond the trees, and found tombstones enveloped in mist.

A graveyard arena . . .

**Twenty . . .**

Nineteen . . .

Eighteen . . .

Seventeen . . .

Sixteen . . .

Fifteen . . . 

Emily closed her eyes and breathed in slowly and deeply through her mouth. She had to slow her heart rate down . . . don't let anyone see the fear . . . even if she won the Games before, the ones she was never close to would target her.

To get rid of the most threatening tributes . . .

**Fourteen . . .**

Thirteen . . .

Twelve . . .

Eleven . . .

Ten . . .

Nine . . .

Eight . . .

Seven . . .

Six . . .

Five . . .

Forget the original plan . . . she made a promise. She HAD to get weapons and kill whoever tried to get the Bruns family.

Emily's eyes went to flaming red hair just in front of her, Abe shook his head at her as if he was disagreeing with her thoughts. "Don't . . ." he mouthed to her.

**Four . . .**

Three . . .

Two . . .

Sorry Abe . . .

**One . . .**

BOOM!

_GONG!_


	48. Chapter 48: Death

Emily's eyes went to one of the stands for a moment and saw blood and guts raining from above. Apparently one of them had gotten off too soon and exploded due to the mines that activated whenever a tribute tried to get a head start before the gong went off.

She pried her eyes away and looked ahead toward the bags and weapons. Most of the tributes, except some of the ones that were placed in the back of the Cornucopia, had the same amount of distance to reach the packs and weapons they needed for the Games.

Since Emily was to the side, she had to upper hand to get the things she needed and run. The mouth of the Cornucopia was right there where the good things were, SCORE!

One of the young tributes had tripped on their way running and blocked Emily's views of a huge bag she was eyeing and saw one of the victors, Ryan, reach for the same pack. Emily stepped over the fallen tribute, jumped off her, and kicked Ryan in the face. He fell over and growled at Emily while she glared back at him.

He launched toward her, she dodged with ease, caught his head and twisted it until it cracked before his body went completely limp. Emily took the pack went for the weapons she needed. She had the knives thrown into the pack and one to her belt and ran to her last weapon of choice.

She looked around and saw Moriah made a run for it away from the Cornucopia while Trace ran into the bloodbath. By the looks of it, he was fine and had allies beside him to heighten the chances of him living longer to protect his daughter. Good thing too, Emily was too far from him to be of any use.

She would just have to go herself.

After she picked up an axe, she felt sharp pain go into her side and another into her leg. She pulled them out, finding knives with her blood running down them and one of the victors running after her with knives ready. The victor from Six, the male threw his knives at her, which Emily let whizz by and slashed his eyes when he became close enough to hit. He screamed in pain and backed away before Emily stabbed him through his heart before she made a run for it.

Or at least limped away to the graveyard . . .

Emily huffed as she escaped the bloodbath, the tributes and the victors cries became quieter and quieter the more she spaced herself away from the golden horn. She passed by tombstones, but never looked at them. She was far too cautious to look at anything else but for any view of tributes.

Emily looked back in search of any tributes that might have followed her. She was injured . . . an easy target. Since she was a threat, going after her when she didn't have the speed to run was the best time to slit her throat open.

The pain took the best of her and made her collapse and grip the knife wound in the back of her thigh. A smart move . . .

"HORWITZ!" someone snarled her name. Emily cringed and crawled toward the nearest tombstone to hide behind. "I KNOW YOU'RE OUT HERE!" the woman cried. It was only a matter of time before the fiancé came to avenge the man Emily killed. "I SAW WHAT YOU DID TO HIM! I'm going to kill you . . ." the girl growled under her breath. "I'm going to kill you, Emily . . ."

"I'd like to see you try, bitch . . ." Emily mouthed as she listened to the girl's footsteps. Emily wielded her axe, curled into a ball to hide her legs and waited for her chance.

Three . . .

Two . . .

ONE! Emily swung at the girls legs when she came to view. She cried out in pain and fell over. Emily pulled the axe out before she fell flat on her stomach and jumped on top of the girl. She fought back, bit Emily's hands and pushed back as Emily tried to stab the girl. For Emily's advantage, she picked the girl's axe wound on her leg which made the girl's strength weaken for a moment and Emily pushed harder into her throat.

Emily kept all her strength into the wound, the girl struggled to pull the knife out and push Emily off, but even if she did there was no use in her living with a wound that cut her windpipe. Emily stayed in her position until the last victor of Six died choking in her blood.

She darkly smiled before she pulled the knife out and got off the girl, who's name she honestly could not remember. Three victors . . . Emily already killed three victors in the very start of the Games . . .

The most frightening part was . . . she was ecstatic to kill again . . . She actually enjoyed the feel of someone's life die by her own hands . . .

Emily sighed and rest her head on one of the tombstones and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. She actually LIKED killing the very people she had worked with for years? What the hell was wrong with her . . .?

She collected all her things and started to move again. A lot of tributes most likely made a run for it since they were also up against people who won the Games, no way in hell would they last long against them! There was a high chance that Emily would run into a bunch of them that escaped.

The cries became too faint for her to hear within half an hour of getting away from the bloodbath and she was STILL surrounded by tombstones. Emily finally took the time to look at the stone and read some names here and there, but they had to be random names that the Capitol threw in to make the arena realistic.

That was . . . until she came upon a tombstone that read, "Liam Aldair, District 9 . . . 68th Hunger Games."


	49. Chapter 49: Grave

"Why—?"

Emily looked away and to another tombstone with another name on it, their district, and what Hunger Games they died in. She kept looking around, finding some names she was familiar with, tributes she had mentored in the past, names of tributes from her Games and her coworkers Games.

She then saw an empty grave with an empty coffin down. Emily looked to the tombstone and read "Emily Horwitz, District 8 . . . 75th Hunger Games."

"What on earth is this . . .?" she mumbled under her breath.

"_You're still pretty no matter how many scars you have,_" a familiar voice said to her from behind. She froze in place and her heart skipped a beat for a moment. It was a trick . . . she knew it was a trick to get a reaction out of her. The Gamemakers just wanted to spook her in using a voice she was familiar with. She couldn't be the only person the Gamemakers were toying with . . . "_Emily . . ._" She slowly turned away and saw something come at her.

WHAT THE HELL!?

She backed away with a small squeal that escaped her lips before she fell into the empty grave, hit her back into the coffin, before the door closed with a click. "DAMMIT!" Emily cursed as she pushed at the door, but it wouldn't budge. "FOR THE LOVE OF CRAP!" she snarled and pushed as hard as she could. Damn Gamemakers . . .

Damn Christo for thinking of that cheap trick!

"HEY! Someone!" Emily called and hit the door of the coffin. She then stopped to think, someone would take advantage if they heard her crying out for help and just kill her the moment they got her out of the coffin. That or stab right through the wood depending on how thin the wood was. She exhaled a breath and lightly hit the back of her head on the cushion.

Well . . . it was either be shot or stabbed . . . or lose air in a matter of hours . . .

She had dropped the axe outside the coffin and she only had the one knife to her belt. Not exactly the best weapon to use and she didn't have the room to swing it either way. That was it . . . she was gonna die . . .

One hour after the gong went off . . . and she was gonna die in a FREAKING COFFIN.

Well . . . at least she didn't die like some of the tributes in the second Quarter Quell. At least her tombstone won't say, "Emily Horwitz, District 9 . . . Death by squirrels." No dignity whatsoever.

So . . . what was she going to do for a couple more hours?

*****

Abe walked through the mist and listened carefully for any sounds. With an axe in hand and a pack, he gripped his axe to ready himself for whatever would jump out. Why a graveyard? And what the hell was going to happen?

Christo didn't say a damn thing about what was going to happen in the arena, just what kind of arena and that there would be more than one victor.

Abe heard a scratching sound coming from somewhere ahead of him. It was faint, but it was still there. He cautiously followed the sound and found a pack and an axe beside an empty grave with a closed coffin. He saw the tombstone and read Emily's name on it.

He heard the scratching sound again and looked down to the coffin. The noise was coming from it . . . Abe accidentally kicked the axe which fell down into the coffin with a thud, followed by a gasp coming from the coffin.

"Hello . . .?" Abe started and stared down at the coffin.

No answer.

"You made a sound, I know you're there . . ."

"Wait . . . Abe?"

"Red?"

"Heeeeeeeeeey . . . be a bud and help me out here?" Emily asked with a tone of embarrassment in her voice.

"How did you get in there?" he asked and jumped down onto the coffin.

"Umm . . . I saw something, it sort of spooked me . . . I fell in and the door closed and locked me in here. Been here a while too and my body is asleep . . ." she answered.

"Hold on . . ." he chuckled, took the axe that fell into the grave and started hacking the door. "Is it getting warm in there?" he asked.

"Yeah . . . because of the heat in here I'm getting a liiiiiiiittle claustrophobic . . ." she answered loudly over the hacking noise.

"Hang in there, Red," Abe said and finally broke through. Emily squeal a moment and curled into a ball a little bit below to avoid the splinters.

"Greatly appreciate it . . ." she said.

After a while with a couple breaks, Abe got Emily out. She squeezed through the jagged hole Abe made and looked to the sweaty and exhausted District 7 victor. "Your welcome."

"I didn't thank you . . . but thanks . . ." she said with an embarrassed tone and looked up to the surface. "Watch out . . . the Gamemakers have done some sort of projection trick to scare the victors," she said.

"What DID you see by the way . . .?" he asked.

Emily didn't answer at first. She pulled the hoodie of her jacket over her head and answered, "My ally from my first Games . . ."

"Oh . . ."

"Yeah . . ."

**BOOM!**

Emily and Abe stayed quiet as they counted the cannon fire that followed with the first. They counted up to thirty-four cannon fires . . .

There were fourteen of them left . . .

Abe climbed out of the grave first and helped Emily up since she had her knife injury. "Thanks . . ." Emily groaned and pressed her hand to her leg wound.

"You need help?"

"I'm good . . ." she nodded and picked up the rest of her things.

"You're an easy target if you limp around by yourself . . ."

"You'd be an easy target too if you help the limping tribute . . ." she pointed out.

"Just take the offer . . ."

"No . . . I'm good." She shouldn't make an alliance . . . not with Abe. Her last alliance didn't end so well and she didn't want to go through losing someone she cared about again. It was far too risky.

"Stubborn bitch—"

"What was that . . .?" she started grimly and eyed him.

"I didn't say anything . . ." Abe shrugged and looked away.

"Prick . . ." she mumbled. Just as she thought, even if they had something the night before, they behaved as if nothing happened. "Besides . . . we're not allies . . ." she said to him and looked back at him.

"No . . . we're not . . ." he sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Got anything else to say . . .?"

"Yeah . . . I hope it doesn't come down to the two of us—"

"It won't . . ." Emily interrupted. "We both know I would be long gone before that would ever happen," she shook her head.

Abe sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Emily eyed the axe tattoo on his neck that he had gotten after he won his Games. His trademark weapon had always been an axe, coming from District 7 it was stereotypical for tributes of that district to use such a weapon.

"I guess . . . I'll see you in the next life?" he asked and looked over at her.

She lightly smiled and nodded. "Sure . . . I guess I'll see you then," Emily started and began to back away from him.

"Emily . . ."

She stopped and looked back at him. After she pulled a bit of the hood away from her eyes, their eyes met and she replied, "Yes?"

"I . . . uh . . . I love—," he paused for a moment, a slight red color blemishing from his cheeks. "—ed working with you," he continued, as if trying to cover something up.

Emily knew better. Much like Abe, she showed emotions but didn't share them to the world or project their thoughts to others. Especially toward each other, they had always been awkward around one another and Emily didn't quite understand why that was. But that little cover up was enough for her.

"It was my pleasure . . ." she gently smiled. "I love—ed working with you too," she said with a teasing tone in her voice. Hopefully Abe got that message too.

She had been crushing on him the past five years . . . she only wished she had told him sooner. Far before the Quarter Quell . . . it would have been better than to JUST discover each other's feelings and have a one-day fling.

She loved Abraham . . . there was no denying it . . .

Every once in a while she would find any excuse to hang out with him. As short as they were and as badly as they would become since it would end in bickering most of the time, they were moments that somehow developed into an awkward form of love.

Emily wasn't sure how it happened and why it happened . . . it just did.

"You'll do just fine, Abe . . ." Emily said, the first to break. "See ya."

"See ya, Red . . ." Abe replied back and turned away.

Emily watched him walk away before she turned away and went the other direction. She did want to be in an alliance with him, she just couldn't risk it. If they became allies, they would become far too close . . . she may even witness his death and go crazy again.

She didn't want to go down that path again . . .


	50. Chapter 50: A Choice

_Emily was in the training center stretching out. She looked around and saw the young tributes running around to all the stations to learn as much as they could that would be of use to them. Most of the tributes were playing around with the weapons while some were smart enough to start of with survival skills._

She sighed and got up to the survival section of the room. She already knew how to work with all the weapons except for the spear, might as well learn more survival needs since there was a higher possibility that she wasn't going to get an arena where food was lying around in the kitchen like her Games.

Some of the tributes took notice of Emily coming over to the survival gear and eyed her carefully. They were all old enough to remember a majority of the victors' Games . . . and Emily's was the most memorable to them.

After all, she was the only victor who made a really bad impression by the end of the Games. The one victor who went insane and practically massacred the last tributes. They were afraid of her . . . the tributes were always afraid of her. From what Phox told her one year, the tributes always asked about her. They were curious to know if she ever went insane again.

The answer was always "no." She never went insane again. That was only a one time thing.

Emily went to the camouflage section and tried out the paints. There were some things around the table to try and copy the color and texture of it to help practice. Obviously the Capitol wasn't expecting the tributes to be expert painters in camouflage without anything to copy off of. They needed things to show that would help them.

Emily mixed some colors to get the right shade of grey, but for some reason she keeps coming up with brown. Obviously had no talent in painting whatsoever. She eventually gave up and went up to one of the trainers for hand-to-hand combat when Abe appeared out of nowhere.

"Jesus. Flippin. Christ!" she cursed. She looked above her and saw the net hanging on the ceiling. He must have been hanging around up there and decided to jump down to scare her. "Hey monkey . . . .you enjoy shaving years out of my life don't you?" she said grimly.

"Why yes now that you mentioned it I did notice that it is my sole purpose in life," Abe smirked.

Emily grimly stared at him and shook her head. Abe had always had the habit of appearing out of nowhere and scare her. She was surprised she didn't punch him all those years.

"I'm already bored being here . . ." she said as she pulled her hair up in a ponytail. And turned to one of the trees the center had in the survival section. She took off her shoes and started climbing up one of the trees and went for the highest branch.

"How about . . ." Abe started and started climbing up the tree after her. Being a citizen in District 7 really had its advantages. He climbed up the tree like it was the easiest thing in the world and sat a branch below Emily within seconds. "You keep your shoes on when you climb up trees in the arena," he continued.

"I just like the feel of bark," Emily said, lied on her stomach and rest her chin onto her arm as she stared down at the tributes. "So are you eyeballing anyone to ally with?"

"Nope, you?" Abe replied.

"I don't think so . . . last time I had an ally it didn't go well . . ." she answered. "I won't be needing help this time . . ." Emily mumbled.

"Your choice Red . . ." Abe shook his head.

Emily looked to him and poked his side. "You want to ditch this place?"

Abe shrugged. "Nothing else to do here anyway," he answered and started down the tree.

Emily watched him and sighed quietly. "I love you . . ." she mumbled and blushed.

"What was that?" Abe questioned and looked up at her.

"Nothing," she answered immediately and started to climb down the tree.

Emily woke up and made a big yawn. It was just a dream . . . just a memory from a few days ago. She was back in the arena and she was one hundred percent going to die. Emily stretched herself and remembered what happened yesterday.

Thirty-four dead on the first day . . .

Emily found a hole underneath a dead tree in the graveyard that kept her well hidden. As long as she had her hood over her red hair, she would be a little difficult to notice. When she settled in, the Panem anthem started to play and lights projected onto the red clouds and showed the following fallen tributes.

Two tributes and a victor from One, same went for Two, all the tributes and victors of Three, one victor from Four, everyone from Five and Six, two tributes from Seven, one tribute and Abir from Eight, Librae and another victor who's name Emily couldn't remember from Nine, all from Ten, one tribute and one victor from Eleven, and two tributes and a victor for Twelve.

So Treshaun, Abir, and Librae were dead . . . Emily had taken a moment of silence for her fallen friends before she laid back in her hole and fell asleep with her knife in hand.

Emily woke up in the middle of the night a couple times. She kept hearing voices and thinking they belonged to tributes that were sneaking up on her while she was asleep. When in actuality, no one was there . . .

Maybe she was going crazy again . . . or maybe it was a trick the Gamemakers were toying with to keep the tributes on edge. Either way, it wasn't amusing . . .

It was time to move on before the other tributes found her. After gathering her things, she made way through the graveyard and kept her eyes on her surrounding. Her bag carried: rubbing alcohol, gauze, some bread, beef jerky, canteen for water, and some glasses. She must have gotten the somewhat good items, not as amazing as closer to the mouth of the Cornucopia, but good enough for her to survive on.

Since she had been passing nothing but tombstones of fallen tributes of the past seventy-four Hunger Games, she finally realized by the numbers of tombstones that so many sons and daughters had to die for the Capitol's pleasure . . .

Nearly two thousand children dead in seventy-four years . . . and still counting until the end of time . . .

There were some strange Capitol names in the graveyard as well. Most likely to remind the audience of the Dark Days of the first rebellion and why the Hunger Games existed today . . .

Every life of the district for every person of the Capitol whose life was stolen in the rebellion . . .

Emily thought of her time in training, how she was socializing with the tributes and victors more than giving a damn on improving her skills that would help save her life. She had been working herself during her free time with weapons and her agility. And doing so for the past five years.

She had been training herself to turn herself into a stronger being. Emily hated feeling weak and vulnerable and felt that because she was weak that all went to hell . . . she shouldn't rely on anyone to take care of her . . .

And since she was back in the arena, she won't let the same thing happen again . . . Emily didn't want help . . . no allies this time . . .


	51. Chapter 51: Day Four!

Day four in the arena . . .

No one had died since the bloodbath . . .

Emily heard screams here and there, but no cannon fired followed after them. She took small nibbles of the beef jerky from her bag from time to time, but saved them since she never knew if she would ever find animals to hunt. She steer cleared away from the vegetation since she wasn't good at identifying plants.

She did come across some large rats that were the size of cats and killed them for their meat. Well it was better than eating stale bread. The sky was eternally red . . . no sun and no moon. It was always light out with the color of blood. So any time was the perfect time to make a fire without getting caught.

Just hope that the smoke didn't turn black then you would be screwed.

Soon she found a catacomb surrounded by the dead trees. It was made of stone with moss growing all over it and two large statues of Death guarded the entrance. Emily slowly went up the steps, stared up at the statues and occasionally glanced behind her for any other tributes that could have been following her before she went inside the catacombs.

Once she pushed the stone door closed, the torches lit up the room. Dusty coffins in the walls and cobwebs in every corner, and many large doors with mirrors in between each door. Emily looked back to the door, she knew other tributes would be curious and would want to come inside for shelter, might as well look around and find a good hiding spot.

Emily tried one door, it was locked.

She tried a second door, locked.

Emily then noticed something strange. She backed up from the third door and looked into one of the mirrors and didn't find her reflection. It was like she wasn't really there . . .

"I advice you don't look any longer into that, Em," someone said.

Emily jumped a little and looked to the voice and found Trace come out of the shadows. "Dammit, Trace . . ." she hissed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Scared me half to death . . ."

"Then you're in for quite a treat," he lightly chuckled and went into one of the rooms.

There he saw his daughter, Moriah as well as two other tributes. One from Trace and Moriah's district, Mikial, Emily recalled. And the other, Jenn from Eleven but was transferred from Four. All the kids knew each other since they were toddlers. Moriah looked nothing like her father, she had her mother's blonde hair and large blue eyes and one the prettiest things Emily had ever seen. Jenn shared the similar appearance, but had a sharper look in her eyes. Mikial had blue eyes and dark brown hair and possibily a year younger than Jenn.

"Found us a visitor," Trace said.

"H-hey Emily . . ." Moriah stuttered. The fifteen year old always had a difficult time talking to people; she had small anxiety attacks toward new people and for as long as she had known her.

"Hey sweetie," Emily greeted with a soft smile.

Before Moriah was old enough to be reaped, Trace would once in a while take her with him. Moriah was only ten years old when Emily met her, two years after Emily won her Games and had started to become more like herself. Moriah was afraid of her at first and who wouldn't have at that age and had just witnessed one of the most gruesome Games in a while?

"You don't have anyone else with you, kid?" Trace asked.

Emily blinked at him and shook her head. "No, it's just me," she answered.

"Where's your boyfriend—?"

"I don't HAVE a boyfriend . . ." Emily snapped.

Trace raised a brow at her and she rolled her eyes at him. "Well whatever you call Abe, I assumed you two would be the first on each others' list."

"Well . . . you assumed wrong . . ." Emily mumbled and ran her fingers through her hair. "

She looked to the other blonde girl, Jenn, who was staring right at her. She and Emily spoke on the second day of training and bonded rather quickly. That time Emily was sick and tired of the training uniform and decided to wear a tank top and yellow pajama pants to train in. Jenn even said she stuck out like a sore thumb.

Jenn revealed that she coincidentally started training with knives when Emily was reaped in the Games. She even said something about how Emily saved her life in some way, but wouldn't answer how.

Most tributes would rather not reveal their life story, some do and it was mostly the Careers. Jenn and Mikial were born and raised in Four, even trained as Careers, but they were something different. They didn't stick out like most Careers and didn't kiss up to the Capitol to gain sponsors and the hearts of many . . .

They were scarred souls . . . Harmed by the Capitol in every way . . .

*****  
Emily watched the door while the kids and Trace were sleeping. She didn't know why she decided to stick around. She already promised herself "no allies," and yet there she stayed . . . watching the door for any intruders with her axe and knives in hand . . .

"Can't sleep, kid?" Trace asked sleepily.

"No . . ." she answered.

Trace sat up and dug his fingers into the corners of his eyes followed by a yawn. "Jesus, blink already . . ."

On command Emily blinked and rubbed her eyes. She then sighed and stared at the door again.

"Your eyes go hard when serious shit happens . . ." Trace pointed out.

"Does it really?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I noticed in your third year mentoring. Your eyes are usually big and full of life. Once the Games start your eyes become . . . well, hard and lifeless . . ."

"Well excuse me for having to keep a promise and protect your kid . . ." she rolled her eyes.

"You can rest now . . . I'll watch the door . . ." Trace groaned and adjusted his sitting.

"Go back to sleep, old man. I got this . . ." Emily said unemotionally without looking to him. When Trace sighed and laid back down, Emily asked, "Trace, why did you not want me to look into the mirror?"

"Moriah saw something that scared her half to death . . ." he answered as he lightly brushed his daughter's blonde hair from her face. "She won't tell me or the other kids what she saw. She ended up screaming and crying after looking into it . . ." he continued. "You're sure you don't want me to stand watch?"

"Goodnight, Trace . . ."

Everyone knew that once Emily made up her mind, there was no way of convincing her to change her mind. She was stubborn after all . . .

Trace went back to sleep and Emily kept her eyes on the door. Her eyes got heavier and heavier and eventually she passed out and collapsed by the time one of the kids woke up.


	52. Chapter 52: Falling!

_ Emily had gone to her room after the parade and immediately untied the corset of her dress as soon as she closed her door. One loose knot at a time it became easier to breathe. She slipped into a tank top before she took the remote to the TV window and started to switch different sights. The Capitol, the mines of District 12, the woods, some part of District 8, the desert, and other areas she didn't really care for._

For some reason there was a view of a small house in a field that felt familiar to her. She shook her head and was about to switch to the next view before two men came out of the house. Emily's eyes widen when she recognized those men to be the Aldairs . . . Liam's brothers.

She got closer to the screen and watched the brothers adjust their collars before picking up their sickles to get to work. They were dirty and looked rather dusty from collecting all the grain they were constantly surrounded by.

Emily mostly stared at Constantine, Liam's older brother, and imagined Liam around that age if he were still alive. Constantine and Liam had always looked alike, almost twins if it weren't for their different colored eyes. That was what Liam had in common with his little brother, Scottie. They both had the same shade of blue eyes.

For a few moments, Emily had to remind herself that the man in the screen wasn't Liam, but his older brother. They just looked so much alike . . .

She shook her head and turned off the screen before she stared any longer. Emily had moved on . . . she said her goodbye to Liam years ago and there was another in her heart. She was frightened that loving another man meant she had replaced Liam, but it wasn't that at all. Emily still loved Liam, but he was dead and gone . . . he was just a mere memory.

She loved him in a different way compared to the way she felt for Abraham . . . and yet it felt just the same . . .

"Hey kid, time to wake up," a voice called out to her.

The moment Emily felt something touch her shoulder, she shot up and shoved the dull blade of her knife toward her opponent, but then he grabbed her wrist before she could touch his throat.

Trace stared at her with a casual look as if it were normal for her to do that if someone woke her up. "Good morning to you too."

"Oh . . ." Emily pulled away hesitantly and looked away from Trace. Her muscles have relaxed and she let go of the angry killer look from her eyes and shook her head. "Sorry, Trace . . ." She looked to Moriah, who stared at her back from Emily's sudden attack. Dammit . . . if Trace wasn't ready, Emily would have killed him . . . "Sorry," she said again, but that time it was to Moriah.

"You're not the only one who gets jumpy waking up," Trace said and shrugged. Most victors slept with a knife under their pillow after winning the Games. It was what made them feel comfortable. To their minds, they were still in the Games even if they were safe in their homes in Victor Village.

It was a good thing a majority of them still jump awake when they heard a little noise, especially when those victors were forced into the Games once more . . .

"Yeah . . ." Emily groaned a little as she got up and fixed her hair. "So um . . . have you guys explored the rest of this place?" she asked before she got up and stretched out a bit.

"We did, some of the doors are locked and that's about it," the boy from Four answered. "For a catacomb, it's bare with no bodies. It's more of a building for storage."

"Interesting . . ." Emily mumbled and picked up her things when she was on her way to the door.

"And where are you going . . .?" Trace called to her.

"Just checking on things," Emily called back. She went to one of the doors and tried to pull it open. It wouldn't budge. Letting out a sigh, she shoved her shoulder to it. Maybe if she could use all her weight and break the door down, maybe they could see what was through the door.

Trace, Moriah, Jenn, and Mikial all came out when they heard the noise Emily was making and saw her break the door down right on cue. "Well aren't you curious . . ." Trace said.

"There has to be a good reason why it was locked—"

"Maybe because something dangerous is in it . . .?" she heard Mikial say.

"Maybe . . ." Emily sighed and rubbed her shoulder a bit. "Or there's something of value we can use and get our hands on before the others come around," she said and looked around. It was just like the other room they were staying in. Bare and full of cobwebs.

They rest of them came in to check out the room and were as disappointed as Emily was. Emily was staring at the floor and saw a huge clock that was partially covered up by dust, but she saw that it led somewhere. Moriah was walking around and taking a better look of the place when she stepped over the block, which broke apart from her weight and fell into the hole.

"MORIAH!" Trace called out. By instincts, Emily jumped into the hole and fell down after Moriah's screams. She then landed on something and started sliding deeper and deeper into the bowls of the earth. Moriah's screaming stopped and Emily started to get worried that the fall killed her.

She was then thrown and hit a wall and landed on something soft. Emily cursed a little in her slight pain and felt the thing she landed on. "Moriah?"

"I'm o-okay . . ." the teenager answered.

Emily immediately got off of her and felt for her shoulders. "Are you okay? Did you break anything?" she asked. It was far too dark to see. Emily was just feeling around blindly for her things and for Moriah.

"No . . . just . . . a-a few-b-b-bruises," she replied. They both got back on their feet and immediately the room lit up in torches. Emily looked around and only saw two ways. But that was it, they were in a narrow way lit by torches and both ways went around the corner. No doors or windows. The only light was the fire.

Emily looked back at the hole she and Moriah came from and didn't hear the other three following after them. How come they weren't coming after them? Did something happen to them?

No matter . . . even if it was only the two of them that Emily was aware of. The very place didn't feel right and staying put would be a bad idea.

"Come on, kid . . . we should get moving. We'll try to meet up with them when we find an exit . . ." Emily said and lightly pushed Moriah to start walking.


	53. Chapter 53: Maze

Emily and Moriah kept going around corners and hitting dead ends. It didn't take long for them to realize they were in an underground maze . . .

Moriah started to hyperventilate and kept her hand to the wall as if she needed some sort of support to keep her on her feet.

"Calm down, Moriah . . ." Emily said ash she took her knife out.

"W-w-we're gonna d-d-die here . . ." Moriah stuttered.

"No, we're not . . . not that easily . . ." Emily growled and cut her palm open. After they went back from a dead end, Emily dabbed a finger onto her blood and pressed her thumb to the wall.

"What-what are you doing?" Moriah asked.

"I'm marking places that lead to a dead end. So we can avoid not going into them again," Emily explained. She wanted to make sure that if they went around in circles, they wouldn't make the same mistake again and take the same route they did before.

"Oh . . . but won't that . . . give others an ad-advantage to find us?"

"Yeah . . . it'll take them a while to figure it out though," Emily nodded and held onto her knife in her best throwing hand. They followed down a path in silence, Emily had to look back behind her to see if Moriah was still there before looking ahead again.

"Do you think we'll get out . . .?" Moriah asked timidly.

Emily didn't answer her, not for a long time. She wasn't sure anymore . . . she wanted to try at least. Or try to get Moriah out to safety . . .

She chuckled darkly for a moment. _Safe_ . . . is a rather rare word in the arena. There was no such thing as safety . . . they Capitol could handle nothingness for a while. It was only a matter of time before the Gamemakers do something in order for something interesting to happen. Something dangerous . . . something that would amuse the sick-minded people of the Capitol . . .

"I don't know, sweetie . . ." Emily finally answered. "I can't promise anything . . ."

*****

They finally sat down to rest and eat a little of what was in Emily's pack. They felt like they had been walking for hours. Emily gave Moriah a loaf of bread while Emily took a tiny bite of her jerky before putting it back in her bag.

"Aren't you hungry?" Moriah asked.

"Yeah . . . but you need food more than I do . . ." she lightly smiled to the girl. _And we should save what we have . . ._, she thought to herself.

A boom sounded from above them. Emily looked up curiously the walls shook. Moriah squealed a little just when the torch flames went out. The ground started to rumble and something that sounded at rock echoed throughout the maze.

Emily called out to Moriah, but she only heard panic in the girl's voice. The ground ceased and silence filled the room. The flames broke through the darkness and Emily noticed a wall where Moriah once was.

"MORIAH!" Emily exclaimed.

The wall in front of her wasn't the only different thing. There were others in different places that weren't there before. There was Emily's blood print on the one before her.

The maze changed . . .

"Moriah! Say Something!" Emily cried.

"I'm—" she coughed, "I'm okay!"

Thank god. "Hold on and stay there. I'm going to find a way to get to you," she said and looked up at the wall. It was far too large to climb and when she did try to climb the walls, it became slippery . . . something the Capitol did so tributes wouldn't cheat their way to find the exit.

"Okay . . ."

"Just keep talking and I'll follow your voice," she called and started jogging around corners.

"I-I was surprised . . . didn't think the maze would change at-at all . . ." Moriah said.

"Yeah! Me too!" Emily yelled as she followed Moriah's voice.

"Emily . . ." her voice stopped.

"Moriah? Are you still there?"

"Em . . . Em . . . E-E-EMILY!" she cried before her screams filled the maze.

Emily panicked and sprinted to Moriah's scream. Within seconds, it all became silent again.

**BOOM!**


End file.
